[ExI] Repressed Science of Brain Transplantation

[Lee Corbin]

We began arguing on this list many, many months ago
whether or not the body is necessary for the experience
of emotion (or of all emotion).

Prominent researchers can be found who claim that it
is, yet logically, their case seems weak. After all, if it's
conceivable that our whole universe can be emulated,
and it doesn't have any bodies, then why can't my mind?

Besides, whatever signals do transpire from the body 
to the brain to help the experience of emotion (and 
perhaps other things), then couldn't very small modules
inserted on those very nerves or blood vessels perform
the same role? All in all, the more I think about it---and
I think people here will agree---the more dubious it seems
that the body really is needed for anything.


As a result, I began to inquire with my friends whether 
any progress on keeping a head alive without a body
had got very far. We do know that people are put on
life support all the time, and shouldn't there be a version
of that which was good for "head only"? It didn't seem
to be out of the question at all for someone whose body
was hopelessly mangled in a car accident to nonetheless
be saved by proper nutrition and circulation being
supplied by machine.

Not only that, but I think that some quadriplegics are in
a lot of trouble because their body (which is totally
paralyzed anyway) is failing them---so why can't they
be placed on such a life support system?

Neither I nor my friends knew, but we wondered if perhaps
animals had been experimented upon, and whether any had
been kept alive "head only". 

Then a couple of month's later, I was going over Bryan's
amazing roadmap, when this caught my eye:
A Brief History of Disembodied Dog Heads
http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2006/02/a_brief_history.html

Warning: there is also something seriously very funny there.

Lee