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Finally, the mainstream news is taking note of regeneration research:
www.happynews.com/news/4420...tients.htm
But from my perspective, this is old news -- old news that should have been heavily publicized for years!
www.happynews.com/news/4420...tients.htm
But from my perspective, this is old news -- old news that should have been heavily publicized for years!
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Michigan
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This issue has gotten me to think of something I briefly considered when the Terry Schaivo hoopla was going on: What if it were possible to regenerate Terry Schaivo's destroyed cerebral cortex? Of course it may be decades before regenrating cerebral matter can actually be done, but if it were possible now, Terry Schaivo might actually have been cured of her disability. At the same time, we have to remember that her previous knowledge and memories won't likely be retained within her new cerebral cortex. Thus, she'd have to gain new knowledge and memories. But then the question of the moment is would Terry Schaivo's new knowlwdge and memeories mean that she'd be a different person? Perhaps so. But since there'd be no way to get the old Terry Schaivo back, we might as well take what we can get.
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Unsu...
WOW!! Thats quite a concept! But what about using molecularnanotechnology to repaire all of her Brain cells that are not irreversibly dead and produce costom made neurological stem cells to graft onto her brain that are "programed"to regenerate untill she has a compleate brain?That way,some of her original cerebral cortex would already be there before the regenerating thing gets started and she may be able to remember a few things.Of course molecular nanotechnology would also be able to restructure her Brain cells to work a lot better thus increacing her intelligence and intellectual capacity.Theroetically speaking,they can make her the most intelligent person that ever lived!! -
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Hi Stephen,
Unfortunately, the kind of nanotechnology you describe is not yet available. What's labelled nanotechnology in current industry is really just glorified material science (fascinating though it's products have been), and is not really the same thing as the molecular-scale machinery envisioned by Eric Drexler. True Drexlerian nanotechnology is probably still several decades away.
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This is very close to Peter F. Hamilton's idea of "Rejuvination", only he makes the addition of an implant withing the cerebral cortex that allows the subject to effectively download and store a copy of their memories.. Should the worst happen, and bodyloss occur, the subject loses maybe a couple of weeks of memory, depending on their last update. Kinda brings into question the idea of how much information the brain could physically store? At what point does it start discarding information? Does it let go of the earliest memories to make room for new one, and does this radically effect the subjects personality over time as they lose the life esperience that made them who they are?
Read Misspent Youth by Peter F. Hamilton for a good exploration of the idea of regeneration, and to a lesser extent Pandoras Star and Judas Unchained where the idea of rejuvination is simply a way of life. Misspent Youth is set forty years into the future and, following decades of research and trillions of euros spent on genetics, Europe is finally in a position to rejuvenate a human being. The first subject chosen for the treatment is Jeff Baker, the father of the datasphere (which replaced the Internet) and philantropist extraordinaire. After eighteen months in a German medical facility, the seventy-eight-year-old patient returns home looking like a healthy twenty-year-old. The book follows the effect his reappearance has on his family and friends - his young ex-model wife Sue, his teenage son Tim, and his long-term pals, themselves all pensioners, who are starting to resent what Jeff has become.
Interesting stuff!
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