I understand this perspective, and I don't disagree with the person you're replying to, but I feel that we mislead ourselves by supposing that our bodies are "foreign matter" to the brain and...
Exemplary
I understand this perspective, and I don't disagree with the person you're replying to, but I feel that we mislead ourselves by supposing that our bodies are "foreign matter" to the brain and therefore have no ontological relevance to our consciousness or identity.
I am not my brain. My brain is part of me. I am defined just as much by the length of my fingers and the addictions of my gut bacteria as the pretentions of unilateral autonomy held by my pre-frontal cortex. Holistically, the entity whose component parts include my mind and body exists as a series of snapshots progressing as my cells die, or whatever arbitrary point I feel constitutes a change of my being. If my brain and other organs "recognize" a particular part of my body as being so ordered, then that's that. A surgically implanted anything cannot be foreign matter to my brain because, in their ungodly marriage, the former has implicitly been internalized into my conscious and/or unconscious recognition of myself. My brain may have "autonomy" to the extent that it believes it has the final say in how I make an action, and so it is the least worst individual organ to determine someone's identity "legally" (yuck), but this is an abstraction made for our own convenience. Our legal system is rooted in ancient ideologies and has no understanding of the revelations of postmodernity and its derivatives.
I'm not able to discuss philosophy further, as I'm both unqualified for it and extremely tired. I have chosen to log into my account and write this comment because we do a disservice to the biological histories we inhabit every day by over-centering our conceptualization of identity on one part of what informs it. Any theory of self-recognition that presents the brain as the lord of all and the bondsman of none is alien to the lives we actually lead, and therefore incomplete. We must desist from such self-separatism or face un-identification.
It's certainly interesting to discuss this issue at length, but I think the reason for the term "head transplantation" is much simpler: this is a medical procedure, and from the point of view of...
It's certainly interesting to discuss this issue at length, but I think the reason for the term "head transplantation" is much simpler: this is a medical procedure, and from the point of view of hypothetical surgeons their attention will be mostly devoted to the more complicated part that will require more work and technique.
Hahahah, you couldn't leave well enough alone, could you? Your eloquent words made my morning, my friend. Thank you for that. So we're just calling this operation a regular organ transplant?
Hahahah, you couldn't leave well enough alone, could you?
Your eloquent words made my morning, my friend. Thank you for that.
So we're just calling this operation a regular organ transplant?
This is a really good breakdown of not only the scientific advances needed to perform such an operation, but also the cultural, legal, and psychological ones. I find the part about the...
This is a really good breakdown of not only the scientific advances needed to perform such an operation, but also the cultural, legal, and psychological ones.
I find the part about the postoperative care that would be needed especially enlightening. I hadn’t considered the types of body dysmorphia and self esteem issues that could arise from waking up with an entirely new body.
I also hadn’t considered the legal aspects of such an operation:
In the future, the offspring of a patient who has been subjected to successful head transplantation may pose questions regarding inheritance and parental custody.
To me, the person who’s head was transplanted would be the obvious answer for who had legal autonomy. But I can see a good argument for the other side as well. Imagine a case like that winding its way through the US court system. It would be a nightmare.
I can imagine a future where powerful rich person have his own head transplant on a new farmed body or illegally stealing it. Your health data and privacy will be so much valuable in the future.
I can imagine a future where powerful rich person have his own head transplant on a new farmed body or illegally stealing it. Your health data and privacy will be so much valuable in the future.
Nothing about this discussion annoys me more than this one thing: the operation being described is a body transplant.
Yup. Your head houses your brain, and that is what you are. Anything outside of that is foreign matter.
I understand this perspective, and I don't disagree with the person you're replying to, but I feel that we mislead ourselves by supposing that our bodies are "foreign matter" to the brain and therefore have no ontological relevance to our consciousness or identity.
I am not my brain. My brain is part of me. I am defined just as much by the length of my fingers and the addictions of my gut bacteria as the pretentions of unilateral autonomy held by my pre-frontal cortex. Holistically, the entity whose component parts include my mind and body exists as a series of snapshots progressing as my cells die, or whatever arbitrary point I feel constitutes a change of my being. If my brain and other organs "recognize" a particular part of my body as being so ordered, then that's that. A surgically implanted anything cannot be foreign matter to my brain because, in their ungodly marriage, the former has implicitly been internalized into my conscious and/or unconscious recognition of myself. My brain may have "autonomy" to the extent that it believes it has the final say in how I make an action, and so it is the least worst individual organ to determine someone's identity "legally" (yuck), but this is an abstraction made for our own convenience. Our legal system is rooted in ancient ideologies and has no understanding of the revelations of postmodernity and its derivatives.
I'm not able to discuss philosophy further, as I'm both unqualified for it and extremely tired. I have chosen to log into my account and write this comment because we do a disservice to the biological histories we inhabit every day by over-centering our conceptualization of identity on one part of what informs it. Any theory of self-recognition that presents the brain as the lord of all and the bondsman of none is alien to the lives we actually lead, and therefore incomplete. We must desist from such self-separatism or face un-identification.
It's certainly interesting to discuss this issue at length, but I think the reason for the term "head transplantation" is much simpler: this is a medical procedure, and from the point of view of hypothetical surgeons their attention will be mostly devoted to the more complicated part that will require more work and technique.
Hahahah, you couldn't leave well enough alone, could you?
Your eloquent words made my morning, my friend. Thank you for that.
So we're just calling this operation a regular organ transplant?
This is a really good breakdown of not only the scientific advances needed to perform such an operation, but also the cultural, legal, and psychological ones.
I find the part about the postoperative care that would be needed especially enlightening. I hadn’t considered the types of body dysmorphia and self esteem issues that could arise from waking up with an entirely new body.
I also hadn’t considered the legal aspects of such an operation:
To me, the person who’s head was transplanted would be the obvious answer for who had legal autonomy. But I can see a good argument for the other side as well. Imagine a case like that winding its way through the US court system. It would be a nightmare.
I can imagine a future where powerful rich person have his own head transplant on a new farmed body or illegally stealing it. Your health data and privacy will be so much valuable in the future.