RE: Anencephaly [was SOC: More genetic tech protests] (fwd)

Billy Brown (ewbrownv@mindspring.com)
Sat, 14 Aug 1999 19:28:26 -0500

Robert J. Bradbury wrote:
> > Bryan Moss <bryan.moss@dial.pipex.com> wrote:
>
> > Would it be possible to make a remote controlled anencephalic child?
>
> Seems feasible. We have the technology now (in a very primitive
> form) to connect electronics to neurons. So long as you have
> a spinal cord, optic nerves, auditory nerves, etc. you should
> be able to get full sensory input into a computer and have full
> output control. I'm unsure whether there are parts of the sensory
> I/O pathways that fail to develop normally in anencephalics.
>
> Of course the question begs another -- if you had a remote controlled
> anencephalic child, what would you do with it?

  1. Install a high-bandwidth radio datalink, and let your human-equivalent AI use it as a body.
  2. Install a computer in the skull, with the same kind of software you would use for a non-sentient robot.
  3. Put your own brain in a mechanical life support system, and grow a stable of bodies for various occasions.

Mind you, I odubt any of these ideas will actually be attractive in the real world, but they all make for good fiction.

Billy Brown, MCSE+I
ewbrownv@mindspring.com