Redvolition t1_iz30sko wrote on December 6, 2022 at 2:18 AM

Reply to comment by SoylentRox in bit of a call back ;) by GeneralZain

Much simpler to just isolate the brain and discard the body. You only have one point of failure now. A pig brain has been kept alive for hours after death in 2019.

I believe the first FDVR implementations might be some brain implant that doesn't attempt to preserve your body in any particular way, maybe from Neuralink or one of its competitors.

The second implementation might be a ship of Theseus kind of thing, in which nanotechnology gradually replaces biological tissue throughout your whole body, including your brain. These new components might allow for controlling emotional states and sensorial imput.

If this second implementation fails to materialize in the next 10 to 20 years, then the brain isolation pathway might gain early adopters and start being explored in the meantime.

If the gradual replacement via nanotech proves to be particularly difficult, it might even be the case that entire generations of humans will exists as isolated brains, with artificial forms of reproduction to keep the population levels.

SoylentRox t1_iz38wf7 wrote on December 6, 2022 at 3:21 AM

Sure. I agree more or less. I mean the body wouldn't actually be discarded per say. Keeping a brain alive by itself is hard. You would realistically provide the functions of a body with living human cells in artificial scaffolding in separate containers from the body. So everything can be carefully monitored for problems because the walls of the containers are clear. Whole thing in a nitrogen filled sterile chamber only robots can access.