[extropy-chat] Cryonics is the only option?

[Robert Bradbury]

On 4/15/07, Keith Henson <hkhenson at rogers.com> wrote:
>
>
> I am not putting your idea down on a theoretical basis, but at the
> practical level it is far, far beyond the state of the art.  I agree it
> would be temporary because technology at the level that could take care of
> an isolated brain or a head is very close to being able to build a person
> a
> brand new body.


I disagree.   The methods for keeping humans with defective immune systems
alive for extended periods are well defined.  Indeed there are probably
thousands to SCID mice being raised in germ free facilities on any given
day.  Antibiotics will deal with bacterial contamination of perfusion
systems.  More problematic is supplementation with new red blood cells and
removal of the old.  But the newer artificial blood molecules may eliminate
the need for this.  To maintain the immune system you might need an external
WBC production bioreactor but I'm reasonably certain that WBC growth and
differentiation factors are well enough understood that you could grow up
batches of an individual's WBC progenitor cells and provide periodic
supplements.

A brand new body requires at *least* a decade (minimal body growth time
based on normal cell division rates) unless you take the 3D printing
approach and we are probably several decades away from doing that at a
"body" vs. a tissue or organ level.

Interestingly, a mouse head or a rabbit head transplanted onto a Roomba is
not that far beyond "current" technology.  I suspect the methods exist to do
it but the microsurgey that would probably be required is probably beyond
that of most home experimenters.  What you need is "direct" connect plumbing
interfaces (as in home aquariums) and some kind of ultra high speed neural
interface chip you can interconnect directly to the spinal cord (and allow
the computer mapping and neural rewiring to work out what the signals all
mean).  Keeping a "Mouse driven Roomba" alive for even a week would make
people sit up and take notice.  They'd start thinking about their pet cat or
dog and then ....  (It isn't as if the Japanese don't already *have* the
robots.)

Robert
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