I’d rather not enact the highest stakes ship of Theseus
This researcher wants to replace your brain, little by little. The US government just hired a researcher who thinks we can beat aging with fresh cloned bodies and brain updates.
Submitted 1 day ago by lemmee_in@lemm.ee to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/08/16/1096808/arpa-h-jean-hebert-wants-to-replace-your-brain/
Comments
captainlezbian@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
kritzkrieg@lemm.ee 10 hours ago
Probably the best description I’ve seen of this lmao
Fedizen@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
No thanks. We don’t need rich people living forever.
roscoe@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 hours ago
Might be the only way to get them to give a shit about the environment.
Fedizen@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
I doubt it. They will just dump shit further away.
SeattleRain@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
Speak for yourself. I think it would be great.
DeanFogg@lemm.ee 9 hours ago
They can live forever but have to trade their fortune for it permanently
Valmond@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Seems your plan doesn’t work, they are here anyways.
Maggoty@lemmy.world 1 day ago
As long as it’s made mandatory to cover with insurance so it’s available to everyone. The last thing we need is an immortal ruling class.
Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 hours ago
Hoping real hard that Alternate Carbon is not becoming reality.
NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml 23 hours ago
I see that you too have heard the prophecy.
TheFriar@lemm.ee 16 hours ago
Let the death of Saburo Arasaka be a lesson to us all: even 150+ year old bastards can get choked the fuck out
Vieric@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
Don’t worry, going by past history this will be available to any and…uhh, checks notes oh, uh-oh.
Maggoty@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
Oh at this point it seems like we’re treating dystopian science fiction as a guidebook instead of a warning.
realitista@lemm.ee 15 hours ago
Is a forever expanding population of old people much better?
Maggoty@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
If they’re functional, and we get serious about space or birth control, then no it’s not a problem. But that is another path we can take to really juice the dystopia.
assassinatedbyCIA@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
On the plus side an immortal ruling class might actually start caring about climate change.
Maggoty@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
Sure, in the most dystopian way possible.
rottingleaf@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
… and reduce emissions by wasting the rest. But due to negative selection leading into that upper class they won’t be able to manage the planet further despite thinking that they can and will die of hunger eventually.
desktop_user@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 hours ago
this might finally be a way to eliminate insurance companies
Maggoty@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
So we get Universal healthcare then, right?
right?
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
If you want a bit of a deeper dive, Sean Carroll’s Mindscape gets into the science of aging and known workable remedies/treatments.
The good news is that Billionaires will not be living forever any time soon.
The bad news is that we’ve got a cellularly defined terminal limit and there’s nothing we can do to simply reset the clock. “Cloned Bodies” for animals are dysfunctional bordering on nightmarish. The human brain’s plasticity isn’t something you can renew with a pill or a potion. Blood Boys don’t work. There aren’t trivially replaceable components in the human body.
Fedizen@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
Its wild this research is even being attempted, its borderline unethical to experiment on otherwise healthy people.
I fully don’t expect immune system driven aging to be understood until the Thymus better understood. DNA reproduction and telomere related aging will not be addressable until cell to cell signaling is finally mapped, and methylation activation/deactivation can be targeted.
Most likely some kind of cloned brain tissue can help reduce age-related cognitive decline and some diseases. Imo we’d get far more out of targeting specific diseases than going after aging.
RedditRefugee69@lemmynsfw.com 7 hours ago
I’d be fine with billionaires getting it first. As much as I’m not a fan of late stage capitalism, I refuse to cut off my nose to spite my face; they got A/C, feather beds, cars, baths, and all sorts of other luxuries long before us plebs got them. Let them beta test the stuff, and by the time the economies of scale pick up enough for it to be affordable to the rest of us, the kinks will be worked out.
Of course there’s always the possibility of a cartel withholding it from the masses, but that’s what the second amendment and guillotines were invented for.
Gestrid@lemmy.ca 3 hours ago
Something something Doctor Who Cybermen.
teft@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Brain of Theseus.
tabular@lemmy.world 1 day ago
AbidanYre@lemmy.world 1 day ago
xia@lemmy.sdf.org 6 hours ago
Brain updates? Now with integrated thought-crime prevention using AI-safety training data.
100_kg_90_de_belin@feddit.it 17 hours ago
Millennials and Gen Z: *bond over their death wish Scientists: *ETERNAL LIFE
Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee 16 hours ago
“Millennials are ruining the death industry!”
cmbabul@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
Could they have at least waited for the boomers to go first, they’ll never give up power now
bufalo1973@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
This is the correct way IMO. “Uploading” your mind to a computer is making a clone/copy, but the original dies the same.
metallic_z3r0@infosec.pub 1 day ago
Maintaining continuity of consciousness is the only thing that would make me feel comfortable with converting myself to a machine intelligence.
very_well_lost@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I hate to break it to you, but our meat brains don’t even have continuity of consciousness. We become unconscious all the time. The only real constant is the “hardware” our consciousness emerges from, but even that is always changing.
MeekerThanBeaker@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I think the only way we know it is us for sure is if we are conscious in both the original and clone at the same time. Like… okay… I know this is me in the new brain, I’ll shut down the other one.
cypherpunks@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
Like… okay… I know this is me in the new brain, I’ll shut down the other one.
the other one: i’m pretty sure you’ve got it backwards, pal
witten@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Read Old Man’s War.
nul9o9@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I agree.
But here is an interesting thing to think about:
What is the perceived difference between falling asleep and waking up the next day, vs going to sleep and copying your consciousness to a machine/new body.
MossyFeathers@pawb.social 1 day ago
Your brain is still functioning while you’re asleep. If it turned off all the way then you’d become brain-dead.
tabular@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Some sleep is conscious (dreaming) but they’re easily forgotten. Perhaps being unconscious still always has a grain of consciousness (but is just forgotten).
It seems there is a line of reduced experience while sleeping, while copying seems to imply it’s always a clone (a different ego, a different person).
germtm_@lemmy.world 1 day ago
reading this comment suddenly reminded me of the “Pantheon” show.
Cort@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Man I can’t get that brain laser out of my memory. So brutal
SkyNTP@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
We don’t need immortal billionaires sucking up everyone’s oxygen.
toynbee@lemmy.world 1 day ago
If you haven’t, you should watch and/or read Altered Carbon.
If you choose to watch, it is my opinion that it’s primarily the first season that’s worth watching.
AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Yeah it’s not like the rest of the population ever benefits from advances in technology… Oh wait…
ivanafterall@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
Found the immortal billionaire. Your username fools no one, highlander.
Valmond@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Well the “not having extreme longevity” doesn’t seem to function, they are here anyways.
Krauerking@lemy.lol 17 hours ago
President Joe Biden created ARPA-H in 2022, as an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, to pursue what he called “bold, urgent innovation”
I did not see Biden creating a cloning and immortality medical research arm of the government but I guess it’s proof he already knew he was getting old before the debate and no wonder Trump wants back in the white house.
werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I want a brain update and a penis upgrade please! Yes 275Tb of ram for my penis and 6" of brain 🧠!
ivanafterall@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
I don’t want my penis remembering that much.
0x0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 36 minutes ago
rm -rf penis/
Oops
OR3X@lemm.ee 13 hours ago
That actually made me laugh out loud. 😂
Petter1@lemm.ee 22 hours ago
Cyberpunk, let’s gooo🤣
wabafee@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
After upgrade, years later in a CT scan. Dr. “That is a weird looking brain it almost looks like a pecker.”
ivanafterall@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
Total mindfuck.
Jarix@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
I’m in, lets do this
HootinNHollerin@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The final boss of subscriptions
militaryintelligence@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I don’t want to live longer, fix my fucking knees and back.
echodot@feddit.uk 23 hours ago
If they make it so I can eat cheese and go outside in summer without drying I’ll happy
0x0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 34 minutes ago
Yes, please focus on the Global Dryness problem first. I must be wet at all times.
Valmond@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Ya the SENS repair approach is the way to go IMO.
GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
…fresh cloned bodies…
Maggoty@lemmy.world 1 day ago
This would do that.
casmael@lemm.ee 1 day ago
FROM THE MOMENT I UNDERSTOOD THE WEAKNESS OF MY FLESH IT DISGUSTED ME
jpreston2005@lemmy.world 1 day ago
There are two reasons he believes the neocortex could be replaced, albeit only slowly. The first is evidence from rare cases of benign brain tumors, like a man described in the medical literature who developed a growth the size of an orange. Yet because it grew very slowly, the man’s brain was able to adjust, shifting memories elsewhere, and his behavior and speech never seemed to change—even when the tumor was removed.
That’s proof, Hébert thinks, that replacing the neocortex little by little could be achieved “without losing the information encoded in it” such as a person’s self-identity.
The second source of hope, he says, is experiments showing that fetal-stage cells can survive, and even function, when transplanted into the brains of adults. For instance, medical tests underway are showing that young neurons can integrate into the brains of people who have epilepsy and stop their seizures.
“It was these two things together—the plastic nature of brains and the ability to add new tissue—that, to me, were like, ‘Ah, now there has got to be a way,’” says Hébert.
Very interesting. I’ve also seen research suggesting that the application of stem cells to damaged neural tissue within the spinal cord could repair it, so the idea that you could use a similar approach to actual brain health isn’t such a big leap. But still, wow. I wonder how long it would take for the immature cells to develop into “adult mode” that’s fully integrated into the patients cortex. In order to replace the entire brain, you’d have to do it in like, 8 parts, with years of recovery time in between each surgery. Also there would exist the potential for the new cells to develop into like, a second, smaller brain, if the connections sour or if the new material isn’t stimulated the “right” way.
Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The brain renewal concept could have applications such as treating stroke victims
If this can restore functions to stroke victims again, it’s absolutely amazing.
If this is vastly successful which remains to be seen, there might be a path format to the longevity part of the idea.icerunner_origin@startrek.website 1 day ago
I am not renting my corporeal existence from a megacorporation. There is no way this is ever affordable to the masses without some pretty huge caveats
ashok36@lemmy.world 1 day ago
No. Absolutely not. Whenever anyone says, “wouldn’t it be great to live forever” remember that means people like trump and Musk are with us forever. Unless people take things into their own hands, but that’s another issue.
redwattlebird@lemmings.world 21 hours ago
If that’s the case, then people with the new brains should have their sex organs harvested.
Papanca@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Yes, because who wouldn’t want to live for centuries amidst floods, fire, raging mad politicians and greedy billionaires…
einlander@lemmy.world 1 day ago
From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh…
QuarterSwede@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Somebody’s been watching Picard.
pewgar_seemsimandroid@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
zipbomb time
ArugulaZ@lemmy.zip 7 hours ago
Good lord, just let people DIE. Imagine what a rotten place this would be if people with outdated mindsets continued to control the world decades or even centuries after their expiration dates. People were already angry about 80 year old presidential candidates… what happens when they’re 120, or 150?
skeezix@lemmy.world 14 minutes ago
For $10 a month you can get the brain implant without ads.