New Videos released by the Foresight Institute from their recent “Vision Weekend - France” (here are the longevity-focused videos):
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The have released some videos from their event in the US recently, this is the longevity panel, others are available via youtube.
This is a similar panel in France 2023
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Head and body transplants seem to be progressing…
Apparently its been done a lot on rodents already…
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Not sure how real this is… but a long way out whatever the case. In the tech world we call this vaporware…
Head Transplant Machine - BrainBridge
“Today I’m thrilled to announce BrainBridge, the world’s first concept for a head transplant system, which integrates advanced robotics and artificial intelligence to execute complete head and face transplantation procedures. This state-of-the-art system offers new hope to patients suffering from untreatable conditions such as stage-4 cancer, paralysis, and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.”
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How does a head transplant help you if you have neurodegenerative disease? Isn’t your degenerated brain coming along for the ride?
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Neo
#12
Good question
I tried to provide some thoughts on that here: Regenerative Medicine, Growing New Organs, Etc - #29 by Neo
and also here: Regenerative Medicine, Growing New Organs, Etc - #28 by Neo
What are your thoughts on those reflections? Would love to hear your perspective.
I think you make two very interesting points:
(1) At the society level, if generating a clone of your body were solved and transplanting your head onto it were both solved problems, it could free up resources to focus R&D efforts on brain problems. Great point, but of course we do not stop trying to find new solutions just because we have one solution. Still, it could make the remaining problems with the brain / cranial organs more urgent and valuable at the margin, so the point stands.
(2) At the body level, I really do not know how much value you get toward brain health by having perfect (suppose for argument’s sake) health below the neck. You can die from a stroke or an aneurism or ALS or a brain tumor, so I guess those types of things would remain as threats to focus on. And it certainly seems plausible that having a strong body could open doors to new treatments for some those types of issues.
I wish we had a good way to activate the glymphatic system. You know, something like a car wash for your brain:
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pretty sure they’re going to discuss some of it at this
Event Page: https://foresight.org/2024-lbf-and-foresight-longevity-workshop/
ng0rge
#15
Is this organization legit or just another cult like RapamycinNews? Anybody talking about “headless clones” and…wait a minute, what’d they call it?.. oh, yeah…“The concept of head transplantation, technically termed cephalosomatic anastomosis” (boy, that’d make a garbage man sound smart!) makes me a little suspicious (@Neo ,I’m looking at you). Will kool-aid be served, along with a lecture on Kohoutek by The Children of God ( it began a method of evangelism called Flirty Fishing that used sex to “show God’s love and mercy”)?
It certainly sounds like @Neo’s ultimate fantasy. I, however, would lean more towards the potential of this concept - Training an AI chatbot on enough data to recreate a dead relative.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68944898
I think that at the speed that AI or now AGI is advancing, all we need is a way to download our memories and we could essentially recreate our brain/personality digitally. But, one crossed wire and you might end up sounding like Scarlett Johansson.
@Neo prefers the head transplant method because he doesn’t want to lose face. And we may all end up in virtual reality anyway. It’s easier to keep a brain alive than a whole body.
Neo
#16
@ng0rge - any thoughts on this:
Many sounded similar to your post above in relation towards organ transplantation in the beginning
(that was actually inspiration for the Frankenstein monster story if I remember correctly).
Same around defibrillators - could not be natural or righteous to bring someone back from the dead right?
Same with IVF for fertility - doctors paying god and babies will be born without a soul…
—
If we could make say a teenager who is paralyzed and will suffer premature death due to the related complications a new body, or say a 20 year old with metastatic cancer that cannot otherwise be cured a new replacement body, would that be wrong or bad?
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Yes - I agree with you Neo.
To be honest, this does trigger the “yuck” factor for me right now, but virtually all surgical operations trigger that in me. Injections used to also trigger that in me, but I’ve slowly gotten over it over years. Ultimately, I think the body transplant is an issue of a sort of biological “Overton Window” that will evolve over time.
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ng0rge
#18
I don’t think even rapamycin will allow you to live long enough to see “head transplants”…oh, excuse me, I meant to say cephalosomatic anastomosis move from “Unthinkable” to “Policy” unless you turn the Overton Window into a time portal. That has enough “yuck” factor to live forever. I can see granny rolling over in her grave.
I suspect you’re probably right on this, but if you’re wrong, I’m sure Neo and I will be the first to vote to deny you the body transplant option if you eventually decide you want it 
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AnUser
#20
Just do the head transplants in a calm, cool, and natural setting, like a small nature-themed surgical robot center. I don’t know where you’re supposed to grow the headless clones, though.
ng0rge
#21
Hey, I’m old…maybe you have a face like Sylvester Stallone in @AnUser’s movie and god knows what @Neo’s so attached to…but if I’m going to get a new young body, I want a young face too - and honestly, for marketing purposes, I think that’d be a big selling point. A brain transplant - or digital transfer - also just sounds cleaner (less “yuck” factor), something about the face just makes it too bizarre, too horror movie like. That’s never going to play in Peoria. Brain’s just another organ…tell Joe Bloe “No big deal, just like getting a kidney transplant.”
We can’t even legalize marijuana for chrissakes, Biden’s tip-toeing around like he’s walking on eggshells…but I’m sure they’ll go for the head transplant thing 
PS- just watched the whole video and saw that they renew your face with plastic surgery. Guess they could make you look like whoever…Michael Jackson even.
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A digital transfer would be pointless. What use is it if a copy of you lives on but you yourself don’t?
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ng0rge
#23
Just posted 4 hours ago.
“Can You Use Head Transplants to Cheat Death?”
ng0rge
#24
Are you saying the soul can’t be digitized? Who knows? but maybe if you could do a near identical replica in AI (I think this is what Scarlett Johansson is afraid of) and have it include memories and everything (like Arnie in The 6th Day) that could certainly have useful applications (as yet unimagined) and doesn’t seem that far-fetched technically. A mental replica of yourself.
Neo
#25
@ng0rge - would love to hear your thoughts on above
Assuming our souls are immaterial, they can’t be digitized. Assuming our consciousness is merely an emergent property of our brain, copying the brain’s structure would just create a second, virtual consciousness but we would still be trapped in our biological bodies.
A mental replica of yourself.
The second you start it, it becomes a different person altogether because your experiences diverge.
