I think the idea of total body transplants:

See this article for details...

I think we should always investigate technologies, even those that are strange or those with ethical concerns that would make it impractical for general human use (note I said, impractical, not flat out wrong). There's gonna be more and more weird stuff like this coming along and we need to look past the bizzare factor to see what its real potential and pitfalls are.

I don't even know what you mean. *** - oh, okay, now I see what you mean. I don't really have any problem with the possibility of being able to do that. I'm dubious that it would be effective or useful any time in the near future, and suspect that it would require intense amounts of physical therapy for years afterwards to retrain our brains to be able to work with the new body.

the interesting question is what is affected (co-ordination/motor skills, etc) when the neural map of one nervous system is suddenly attached to another. i would imaging walking, riding, driving, basketball, typing, etc would need to be re-learned

Eh? Sounds like it won't happen for a very long time. Cloning, on the other hand, is expected to be used by 2020.

As long as the brain stays intact, although you of course lose all your muscle memory. If you were a great pool player, you need to retrain all your muscles and build them up. But if you were going to die, it's a better option :)

The guy claims he could do it within the year; I think that's total BS. This would be unbelievably complex and I don't see it happening for a long time, and even then, it would be outrageously expensive. Just the thought of somehow finding and attaching all the corresponding wiring in the CNS is enough to give me fits.

It remembers me "Lazarus Long" from Heinlein. I liked the idea of a "brain-backup", restored on a cloned body...

Oh. hmmm, I read the question as "the idea of 'total-body' transplants ideas of mind-body schisms" or some such thing.*** jzp, don't forget skills like hearing and seeing, which would also need to be re-learned as the brain developes the interpretation of the signals from the optic nerves etc. over time. I wonder, even, how a brain would deal with the different resistance that a new set of lungs give. whatever... maybe they'll discover something usefull to contemporary medical science while pursuing this.

Is interesting, and is, in fact, science fiction. (We're hundreds of years away from being able to do this, folks; we'll all be dead before these are even experimentally feasible, and anyone who tells you otherwise is a crackpot.) ***Okay, I went to the article, and I quote this paragraph: "While total body transplants show just how far surgeons have come in manipulating the body, they have yet to figure out how to reconnect the spinal cord. So for now, patients undergoing this operation would not be able to move their new bodies. But with spinal chord research developing so rapidly, many scientists expect that problem can be overcome." Any scientist who actually expects that that problem can be overcome in their lifetime is just wrong. I promise a thousand US$ to anyone who calls me on this if I'm proven wrong in my lifetime.

Don't feel like reading the article. Just gut reaction is that it doesn't seem possible, at least in the near future.

Hey, these catagories are stolen from the ABCnews web site. I'll wait till they work out that little detail about reattaching the spinal cord before I try it, though.

I voted "Is strange, but deserves ethical and scientific scrutiny". I think it'd be more accurate to say "Is stange _and_therefore_ deserves yadda yadda yadda". As a techno-weenie, I'm completely fascinated by the feasibility of something this twisted, and totally support [voluntary] experimentation into this. It's pretty creepy to think that it could actually happen in the next few years. But think of the benefits! We could put Mike Tyson's head on Bill Gate's body! Or swap Louis Farrakhan and Rush Limbaugh's heads! It'd be like Colorforms with real people!

musta missed something here ... if they transplant your total body ... how can you still be you? are we talking 'soul' or 'consciousness' transfer?? *** ok, I glanced at the article and i remember seeing those monkeys somewhere - gross, but not necessarily immoral ... I'd rather have the consciousness transfer than re-attaching my head to someone else's body ... I've always had the idea that what you see as 'blue' is just an interpretation you have been taught and that if you were to switch eyes with someone you could very easily 'think' you saw pink. Reality is so Virtual!

Waffling between the last two. What's the difference between plopping your brain (and hopefully the attached nerves) into a new body and replacing everything except the brain? Parts is parts. Ah...read the article. Good luck on the spinal column, although I'm not as pessimistic as steve. Doing this with a acephalic clone would be a lot better (now we just need to grow said clone); there's less re-training involved. Overall, I'd say replacing bits piecemeal would be a better choice.

Funky. But imagine trying to learn to use your new body correctly, when you've been used to having another one for years and years!

Is pointless. Why waste the research dollars?!

Actually it won't happen. There are millions of connections at the microscopic level that would be required. It would take years to get enough of them connected to allow for the transplant to occur.

Yeah, but would it still be me? What about the learning curve as you're trying to adjust to someone elses bad posture?

how exactly does it differ from a brain transplant? *** ok , i see, you get to keep your head. sure, go on and research, call me when that minor spinal cord glitch is figured out

Total body transplant?? How exactly would this be done.. is this transfering your brain into a new body? Would be interesting if we could clone brainless bodies (in order to avoid the ethical issues).. who know's. Probably not in my lifetime.. space seems to be the new frontier for now.

What are we talking about here.... Taking the entire body of one person and making it into someone else? How is this even possible...? Changing the chemical balance in this donor persons brain...? This sounds pointless. sorry.

Machine Storage!