Frustrated with progress!
Hi all!
I'm new here...
I'm a qualified surgeon. I have spent many years dreaming of becoming a cyborg. I would love to be able to modify my body both functionally and aesthetically beyond which is possible today. My ideal goal would be to have my brain removed and implanted into a totally artificial body (I firmly believe that it would be impossible to upload a consciousness to a computer as this would merely be a copy rather than the original). I want to feel artificial.
Am I the only one who feels like this? Is there anything I can do to make small steps in this direction? I have wondered about having bilateral below knee amputations as a start...
Sophie
I'm new here...
I'm a qualified surgeon. I have spent many years dreaming of becoming a cyborg. I would love to be able to modify my body both functionally and aesthetically beyond which is possible today. My ideal goal would be to have my brain removed and implanted into a totally artificial body (I firmly believe that it would be impossible to upload a consciousness to a computer as this would merely be a copy rather than the original). I want to feel artificial.
Am I the only one who feels like this? Is there anything I can do to make small steps in this direction? I have wondered about having bilateral below knee amputations as a start...
Sophie
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A transitionary material from organic to inorganic is needed. Think how an antler protrudes from the head... there is your anchor. :o
However, do you really think we have a stronger, more articulate, lighter, better balancing and responding bionic foot? I feel like anything that would be created with current technology would have pyrretic flaws compared to a human foot. ;_;
A foot...
~ heal itself
~ closed, protected and sealed system
~ no-lag response time
~ possess variable strength and timing
~ can be made stronger
~ Provides a wealth of sensory input
~ very articulate and controllable
~ does not rust/corrode/break down
~ connected by bone and ligaments (strong stuff)
~ integral with the body, doesn't need as much attention.
As a surgeon, you probably understand the inefficiencies of the mechanical heart versus a real human heart... The person who designs a synthetic heart that can even just emulate what a real one does, on its level, it's going to be wealthy beyond their dreams. >~>
Have you looked into magnet implants? I've got one last year and it does fulfill some of these feelings of modifying your body for function.
@Zerbula: Also, lol at some of those points (not breaking down... have you seen a diabetic foot? :P)
I wouldn't say that's a majority problem with most feet and a need to preemptively remove a functioning one. ;_;
But yes... Like any other body part, they can fail...
I hate ulcerative colitis so much... I wish I could get some artificial large intestine to replace my struggling one. It's torture. ;~;
mmm don't like that idea, free will and all but maybe with stem cells and bio-robotics you could do it, although I do like the idea of starting off with a leg, if I was to get one I would give it functionality like north sense.
Hey, I never said that it would be easy. :P Just like JF Kennedy said, except substitute "going to the moon" with "getting a mechanical body".
Regards to some of the points raised here though: part of the idea is that there is no more immune system to bother about (instead, infection is prevented merely via isolation from the environment, which I can see some difficulty but not entirely impossible or else we wouldn't have a sterile room like an operating theatre), and thus there can be no rejection problem since that's entirely immune mediated. This also unfortunately might make the brain more vulnerable to other forms of injury, though how much I'm not too sure since it is quite immuno-isolated (not entirely as evidence is showing).
Re: breathing - the brain picks up whether or not you need to breath more or less via detecting the pH and CO2 in the CSF, so as long as the life support system is keeping that constant (which it should since that's part of the point of the life support) there shouldn't be problems.
Re: balance - the vestibular system actually works by interpreting the difference in between the signals going into the brain via the cochlearvestibular nerve, and the brain is surprisingly adaptable to changes in the signals anyway (ie, to the point that patients with chronic problems in the cochlearvestibular nerve, eg acoustic neuroma, can present with no vertigo at all).
In fact, the plasticity of the brain is to the point that I'm curious as to how it would adapt to massive changes to the signals going into it when we put it in a mechanical body (obviously, it would need SOME signals going in since it will need so sense the surroundings somehow).
Speaking of senses, another way of doing it would be to stimulate the cortex directly (eg: post-central cortex for senses, transverse temporal gyri for auditory, calcarine gyri for sight), though that would mean bypassing the thalamus (which acts as some sort of sensory filter - the reason why you get used to the feeling of clothes on your body once you put it on, for example) which is something that I'm not too sure if I can to do.
Anyway, given the current work on bionic ears and bionic eyes and limbs I'm not too worried about the inputs and outputs for the brain. If I were to worry about would be the "keeping the brain alive" bit since there doesn't seem much to be going on (unless you count full body transplantation, which I read a paper seem to work on mice - but that's hardly a "mechanical" body) in that area.