The list of fiction that has been inspired by this idea is long. I remember as a kid being shocked by a movie about a mad doctor who kept heads alive in his lab. That I still remember it is a testament to its impact on me.
I feel forced into a dichotomy there. If someone loses his body's physical function, frankly no, he is not really himself anymore. I'm taking the holistic view in this. A lot of the way in which we interface with the world requires our body. Input and output, sensory perception. It's a large part of who we are. Granted, more of his identity remains if is brain still works as opposed to his body. My knee-jerk resistance to the marked separation of brain and body is it's usually a mule pulling the wagon of "...and that's why I don't exercise." Taps temple knowingly. "It's only up here that matters."
We'll have to agree to disagree. Your body is used to do what you do - but your brain is who you are. You are not what you do. Oh, I am a big believer in exercise! And I know the more active you are, the better your brain functions.
I don't understand separating the brain from the body. It's part of it, like a liver or a big toe. It's like saying "Are you a body with a big toe, or a big toe with a body?" The brain is a physical thing, an organ. The only sensible separation is between body and mind, but of course a mind can't exist without a body. I don't believe in any practical sense a brain could be kept alive without a body, as in a "brain in a vat" experiment. It would require a ridiculous amount of apparatus. You'd need artificial organs, a full set of them. But more than that—let's say a brain is grown in a vat, or taken out of a body at a very young age and put in a vat with like twenty square miles of apparatus to stand in for actual organs. It would still need to be able to receive the full range of sensory input in order to grow like a 'normal' human being, and so much of the experience we require involves touching. If a baby isn't held enough and handled physically in a loving way, it will become extremely depressed and simply die or become unreachable emotionally. How do you simulate that without having a full body with intact nervous system running throughout the entire surface of the skin, and having the baby interact physically with its mother? It almost needs to be the mother, otherwise there isn't a sufficient bond between adult and child to ensure that the adult will actually respond to the baby's distress caringly enough at all times to ensure the baby's wellbeing. Apparently there's extremely strong evidence indicating that a mind needs to be embodied in order to experience life in a way that makes the mind human, or probably even animal. Otherwise you'd end up with something like a disembodied AI, for all the same reasons AI can't 'understand' what it is to be human or to experience emotions. I don't believe a brain in a vat, or a body in a sensory deprivation tank all its life can possibly grow to be sane. I think that requires a sufficienty healthy brain in a sufficiently healthy body that's able to play and experience life with other healthy brains in other healthy bodies—to interact with other people. It's largely the accumulation of all these experiences that makes us human, or that even make us able to function at all. My understanding is that you can't separate a mind from its body, or a brain from the rest of its body, and expect the mind to be sane and healthy in any way we'd recognize as human. Of course I'm talking about practical physical realty, this might be more of a thought experiment not intended to reflect on any real-world situation that could actually happen.
I've read this, too, that touch stimulates the release of important hormones, like oxytocin. But there's also people who become disabled later in life and they stay who they have grown to be.
I've actually just re-worded that slightly for the same reason you just mentioned, as well as a few other changes here and there.
That's with a certain amount of damage though. What if it's complete separation from the physical body? Once again, in a very different context this time, I quote Metallica from the song One: I can't remember anything Can't tell if this is true or a dream Deep down inside, I feel to scream This terrible silence stops me Now that the war is through with me I'm waking up, I cannot see That there's not much left of me Nothing is real but pain now [...] Darkness, imprisoning me All that I see, absolute horror I cannot live, I cannot die Trapped in myself, body my holding cell Landmine, has taken my sight Taken my speech, taken my hearing Taken my arms, taken my legs Taken my soul, left me with life in Hell I mean, I know, it's a song, and it's about more than just not having arms and legs etc, there's intense pain as well. And he also no longer has sight or hearing. But essentially it's about being largely disembodied (no arms or legs, no ability to move around or interact with the world or other people, no way to express his pain and anguish). And all he wanted was the peace of death.
Of course though, a big part of it is that he still has nerve endings all through what's left of his body, and they're sending him constant pain signals. So in some ways this works against my arguments. Plus a brain in a vat would doubtless have artificial eyes and ears and ways to communicate, though I don't think communication through electronic media would be very satisfying in an emotional sense. How could a disembodied brain ever love or be loved?
Ah, interesting question. You just reminded me of a short story I wrote that approaches an answer to this question - Forces of Attraction (post #3) https://www.writingforums.org/threads/november-short-story-contest-what-really-happened-was.173648/
It's your kidney now. You paid for it fair and square. At least that's what my brain said when I asked it about this.
How about if a brain transplant were possible? In theory, I don't see why not. What happens then? Does the brain remain the same with the new body, or do they both form a new person in a way? Naturally, this has been explored in science fiction stories. What came to mind was Heinlein's I Will Fear No Evil that I read a few years ago. Not his best novel, but it was interesting to think about. Spoiler: Plot points of a novel from 1970 that are probably mentioned on the back cover anyway A dying, and very old and very rich man's brain is transplanted into the braindead body of a 20-something young woman. The people close to him know him as the same old man in the new body, but things definitely do change. He, now sort of? she, even explores his/her/their sexuality with this drastically different physical form.
I think they would transplant the whole head. And it is something they are talking about. Freaky. First Human Head Transplantation: Surgically Challenging, Ethically Controversial and Historically Tempting – an Experimental Endeavor or a Scientific Landmark?
That's very interesting, and for sure way more feasible than the story I mentioned (but you couldn't have quite as much fun!). Trying to connect a brain alone to another body would be incalculably difficult, but yeah, the head itself? Even if you can't connect it to the rest of the nervous system, the body can be kept alive by other means, while still nourishing the head. The (probably very wealthy) person wouldn't die, but they'd likely be immobile and without any physical sensations exterior of that transplanted head. Still, better than death? Maybe? For a while, anyway? Lots of stuff to watch on Netflix.
Also, would the brain still contain the other person's memories and experiences? I imagine not. But maybe some of the earliest and deepest imprinting would still be there? Would it be wiped clean? Fresh and ready to start anew? Strange and fascinating.
Actually now that I think about it, the brain would need to be kept alive the entire time. It wouldn't die for a while, which might wipe it clean like a formatted hard drive. So it may very well still contain the other person's memories, thought habits, experiences, etc, including probably any complexes and neuroses. And you would probably lose all your own. It would be them living in your body. Of course, we can't really know until it's tried. But that seems likely to me. I know I'm no brain surgeon, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. And I've watched lots of House, MASH, and ER.
I don't think death is the worst thing that can happen to us. Death is a natural part of life and when it's our time we should go with dignity. I wouldn't want to be kept alive by extraordinary means.
The brain stores memories by the way the neurons talk to one another. As long as they keep talking, there's no reason for the memories to disappear. The video (5 min) below won first place in the 2021 Brain Awareness Video Contest
The video (4 min 37 sec) below won first place in the 2023 Brain Awareness Video Contest From Mind to Machine: How Networks in the Brain Give Us Artificial Intelligence
Well now, an interesting question would be - what if the new body had senses that the old one didn't? For example, someone who has been blind from birth is transplanted into a seeing body. The visual cortex will not have developed in the same way as a seeing person. How will they process the sensations now entering their brain?
