BIOLOGICAL IMMORTALITY (14/04/2024)

The children of today are the gods of tomorrow for we may soon lose our shackles and break free from our organic cages and biological prisons. However, do we truly need to transcend our organic bodies to break free from their mortal restrictions?

One way to achieve biological immortality would be to transplant the brain (and perhaps the spinal cord and parts of the nervous system) into an artificial carrier or synthetic body. Experimentation in animal head transplants began in the early 1900’s and this sort of experimentation has been extended to humans in recent years.

Once a brain has been successfully transplanted from one organic body to another, the next step may entail transplanting a brain from an organic body to a cybernetic body, or even better, onto a scientifically brain-dead clone of the original (same immune system etc).

Brain transplants are possible because the human brain is the last organ in the body to cease function after death. After heart failure, for instance, research has shown that the brain goes into a state of deep, dreamless sleep for several minutes. Death is not instant as some would believe, death is a process. This transizion into death gives a short window of opportunity where the brain continues to function without support from other organs, allowing for a transplant to take place.

If an artificial life-support system can keep the brain supplied with necessary fluids and oxygen, the brain could continue to live within the artificial carrier for vast amounts of time as nerve cells age slowly compared to other organs. The brain would be supported within the artificial carrier with hormonal-biochemical and energetic substrates that maintain the organic tissue. Advances in nanotechnology and gene edizing will greatly improve the longevity of this organic tissue.

The brain would be able to control the artificial body through brain-machine interfaces that convert brain waves or thoughts into movements and speech. Advances in technology that help blind people see, deaf people hear and paralysed people feel and move, will be helpful as they will allow the transplanted brain to sense and interact with the environment.

Not long ago, at MIT Media Lab, Dr Berger spoke about creating prosthetic brain implants that can create false memories. The same lab received attention when they successfully generated new memories in a rat that had had certain areas of the brain, such as the hippocampus chemically disabled. Dr Berger has in the past spoken about how this same technology could lead to brain transplants. These advances in brain transplants, coupled with advances in brain-machine interfaces mean that with the right funding and research biological immortality is possible.

Modern day humans often push away the problems of tomorrow for they are mere concepts and the future is daunting and ominous but we should bare in mind that the rate of technological progression is near exponential. Hundreds of thousands of years were spent perfecting the arrowhead, centuries perfecting the bullet, decades perfecting intercontinental ballistic missiles. This analogy applies to many types of technology and this growth and progression is why we can state with certainty, that immortals already walk amongst us.