
Italian neurosurgeon appeals to billionaires to fund first human head transplant - MarlonPro
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/76195238/italian-neurosurgeon-appeals-to-billionaires-to-fund-worlds-first-human-head-transplant
======
nakedrobot2
IT'S A FULL BODY TRANSPLANT NOT A HEAD TRANSPLANT :)

------
mrinterweb
I can't help but think of a potentially horrifying black market that preys on
the young and healthy, who's clients are old and rich.

~~~
pierotofy
Relevant movie:
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2140379/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2140379/)

~~~
iamthepieman
This seems much relevant to the parent
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1334260/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1334260/)

A very disturbing movie and not just because of the inevitable gruesomeness of
it. The complacency with which everyone in the film ultimately acts is just as
horrifying as its premise.

------
fibo
I am always surprised despite all the difficulties we have in Italy with our
politicians, how many individuals open up with innovation and excelence.

Aside that I hope this can save the Russian computer scientist.

------
otto_ortega
This has been done before in dogs, and it is pretty creepy:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Demikhov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Demikhov).
It was the base for the plot of one of the X-files movies.

~~~
deutronium
But that's not connecting the nervous system up

~~~
Caprinicus
This probably won't be either. If we knew how to do that, we would have tried
it on an animal successfully first.

------
Grishnakh
What we need is brain transplants. Then when we've perfected that, we need to
secretly abduct various politicians and other powerful people, and replace
their brains with those of better people who volunteer to take their places.
Then, since the brain transplant won't be obvious, we can have a better
society without these sociopaths ruining it for us.

~~~
ddorian43
You have to fix people in general to do that. Brain transplanting in that
scenario won't actually work. Hell, many scientist don't want to do politics.

~~~
Grishnakh
I completely disagree. You don't need a scientist to take over a politician's
body, just some normal, reasonably-intelligent person who's willing to listen
to others and isn't evil or corrupt.

The problem is that politicians tend to be sociopaths, who as a group comprise
probably about 5% of the entire population. The stupid ones go to jail, but
the smart ones become politicians, CEOs, etc., because they can outcompete
regular people since they don't have a conscience to hinder them. So if you
replace their brains with those of non-sociopathic people (the other 95% of
the population), things should improve.

------
djfm
Near the end of the video it is suggested that the head transplanted onto a
younger body would rejuvenate and hence it would make sense to cultivate
clones of yourself and periodically transplant your head onto them to live
eternally. This is both horrifying and hard to believe.

------
nivertech
How come nobody mentioned this classic soviet SciFi novel:

 _Professor Dowell 's Head_

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_Dowell%27s_Head](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_Dowell%27s_Head)

------
atf104
This was (for the most part) debunked on several reasonably reputable sources:
[http://www.businessinsider.com/head-transplant-
hoax-2015-4](http://www.businessinsider.com/head-transplant-hoax-2015-4)

~~~
Sebguer
No, it was not debunked. A bunch of news articles re-posted Kotaku UK's
'evidence. Even the article you linked states:

"Kotaku UK published a comprehensive breakdown on this conspiracy theory"

The Doctor firmly denied this- and is without a doubt, a real neurosurgeon.

------
sixQuarks
What makes this cost $17 million?

~~~
hanniabu
Wouldn't be surprised if a lot of that went to insurance....as in malpractice
insurance, even though I'm sure the recipient will be signing various wavers

------
mei0Iesh
Notice it doesn't say the first "successful" human head transplant.

~~~
kazinator
Lots of such qualifying details are not uttered, because they are _assumed_
according to certain maxims which govern constructive conversation among
rational people.

~~~
jsprogrammer
Where can I find these maxims written down?

~~~
pcl
The Hippocratic Oath is probably a good starting point, given that the guy
asking for the money is a surgeon.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath)

~~~
jsprogrammer
I didn't realize some still consider logic based on Greek gods.

~~~
Impl0x
You'd be happy, then, to note the modernized version also included in the
article.

