Why can't we do away with our bodies and simply exist as brains In jars ?

We can transplant Hearts, Lungs, Liver and grow human tissue on matrices etc. We can do open heart surgery and kidney dialysis.

As a means of extending life, what are the main reasons why we can't isolate the seat of human conciousness, the brain keep it alive without the rest of the body ?

Reply 1

CallMeJay

12

This is such a strange question, I don't even think an expert could find the answer for this. This is way past my knowledge of biology lol

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Reply 2

aka r

U been watching too much futurama

lol.

I'd feel sorry for the last person left with a body.

Reply 5

Thoth's World

19

Original post by Baldness

We can transplant Hearts, Lungs, Liver and grow human tissue on matrices etc. We can do open heart surgery and kidney dialysis.

As a means of extending life, what are the main reasons why we can't isolate the seat of human conciousness, the brain keep it alive without the rest of the body ?

In all fairness we are laughing and making snide remarks but this is a good question, I have an urge to say no blood flow though? or connection to the body to be able to react and respond to external factors our body experiences.

Reply 6

Asklepios

19

Original post by Baldness

We can transplant Hearts, Lungs, Liver and grow human tissue on matrices etc. We can do open heart surgery and kidney dialysis.

As a means of extending life, what are the main reasons why we can't isolate the seat of human conciousness, the brain keep it alive without the rest of the body ?

Good question. There are a few practical issues with this because it needs a blood supply, it needs to be kept at the right temperature etc. this is to ensure cells in the brain don't die.

I'm not sure what you're suggesting beyond keeping the brain alive though. Transplant it into a robot or something? The main issue with that is how little we actually know about how the brain works.

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Reply 7

goldie56

13

What would there be to stop animals making contact with us, what would we have to protect us?

Reply 8

SerLorasTyrell

15

I doubt the practicalities would be too difficult, just hook up a pump kind of thing they use for transplanted organs to the main blood vessels.

The reality is that you would be a blind deaf person without the sensation of taste smell or touch, I wonder how long it would be before you went crazy. However I'm sure some people would enjoy being left to their own thoughts for the rest of time.

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Reply 9

SerLorasTyrell

15

Original post by goldie56

What would there be to stop animals making contact with us, what would we have to protect us?

A jar - duh

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Reply 10

goldie56

13

Original post by SerLorasTyrell

A jar - duh

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Yeah not a forcefield or high enough concrete wall to prevent them coming in - no, we'll use a jar

Reply 11

SerLorasTyrell

15

Original post by goldie56

Yeah not a forcefield or high enough concrete wall to prevent them coming in - no, we'll use a jar

Giving that the first doesn't exist and a room would obviously be used I don't see what the issue is, go watch futurama or something

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Reply 12

the bear

20

i think several TSR members have already made this transition

:eek:

Reply 13

goldie56

13

Original post by SerLorasTyrell

Giving that the first doesn't exist and a room would obviously be used I don't see what the issue is, go watch futurama or something

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In Futurama people are there to guard the heads, OP is implying that there wouldn't be. No people means an I Am Legend situation; lots of overgrown nature. What's to prevent them entering the place with the jars

Original post by goldie56

In Futurama people are there to guard the heads, OP is implying that there wouldn't be. No people means an I Am Legend situation; lots of overgrown nature. What's to prevent them entering the place with the jars

You may as well say what's to prevent a meteorite hitting your jar? Both are very unlikely and I doubt people would store their conscious in a fragile jar a dog could knock over and smash in a room that one could enter (using biggest animal you will probably come across on land in Britain)

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Reply 16

Baldness

OP

2

We lose so many brilliant minds each year.

I think if we could keep humans "alive" in jars humanity would benefit from at least some of those "peoples" brains.

A talking head would be much better.

Is it the liver thats a major problem ?

We can hook up blood, nutrition and deal with blood dialysis. There is the immune system of course thats extremely complex ....

Reply 17

rayquaza17

17

Original post by aka r

U been watching too much futurama

Sadly I've run out of rep!

Reply 18

scrotgrot

16

Even if the brains can somehow communicate and are made indestructible, just you wait until the heat death of the universe rolls around. Death is a blessing.

Reply 19

nexttime

22

Original post by Baldness

We lose so many brilliant minds each year.

I think if we could keep humans "alive" in jars humanity would benefit from at least some of those "peoples" brains.

A talking head would be much better.

Is it the liver thats a major problem ?

We can hook up blood, nutrition and deal with blood dialysis. There is the immune system of course thats extremely complex ....

So you're basically asking can we keep a brain alive without the rest of the body.

Blood - you could use donor blood. You could pump it around with a heart bypass machine - a huge machine with dubious long-term reliability. You'd have to hook it up directly to the brain's arteries - your definition of brain would decide how difficult that would be to do. Something like this has probably never been tried, especially long-term, so the impact this would have on regulation of blood flow is totally unknown.

Lungs - You can oxygenate it with endo-corporeal membrane oxygenation. Big, expensive machine with unknown long-term affects.

Kidneys - dialysis is used in people true, but this is a completely unheard of scenario - you can't be sure that the endocrine system isn't keeping at least some of those ions - calcium etc - in check. Its definitely bad for cardiovascular risk factors - no idea what would happen to an isolated brain.

Feeding - you can use IV feeds, but these are hugely fat based and proven to have negative impacts long-term.

Liver... basically impossible to emulate. It has well over 100 functions. Even if you could have an isolated liver perfused by its own life support system as well, all of its systemic regulation would be gone.

Glucose regulation would be all over the place without its hormones or storage places (liver, muscle). You'd need an insulin pump and glucose drip working with second-to-second regulation and feedback to preserve this brain (the organ most vulnerable to hypoglycaemia).

Clotting would be all over the place. You'd need minute-to-minute monitoring and correction with donated clotting factors (although you're going to remain very anti-coagulated overall as the stroke risk would be huge with all this going on).

What would happen to a brain with no sensory input? Usually if you lose say an arm, that bit of brain is taken over for use on other things. With nothing there... would it just atrophy? Or are we keeping eyes etc attached? Because then they'd need their own blood supplies reattached etc. And the pain of having all of your nerves in your body severed... again, no one knows what would happen.

Temperature would need to be precisely controlled.

Risk of infection and trauma would be huge without skull and skin, nor presumably any immune system. The mechanisms of healing with no immune system and no liver would remain to be seen.

Who are you doing this to? If its someone that died of something else then they'll probably be old, and so already have significant cortical atrophy, already have 80-90 years worth of atherosclerosis, possibly a few previous strokes and probably some early signs of a dementia too.

You could probably pick at least 100 other issues with this - but there's a start for you.

(edited 9 years ago)

Why can't we do away with our bodies and simply exist as brains In jars ?

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