Neuro-science related Question for Oliver North
Removal of a large portion of a brain structure results in irreversible deficits, unless it happens in very early infancy. We know this from watching people go through transient or permanent personality and ability changes after head trauma, stroke, extensive brain surgery or during the agonizing process of various neurodegenerative diseases, dementia in particular...Primary neurons live about three weeks in the dish, even though they are fed better than most children in developing countries — and if cultured as precursors, they never attain full differentiation. The ordeals of Christopher Reeve and Stephen Hawking illustrate how hard it is to solve even “simple” problems of either grey or white brain matter...As a result, renewal of large brain swaths will require such a lengthy lifespan that the replacements may never catch up. Not surprisingly, the efforts in this direction have begun with such neurodegenerative diseases as Parkinson’s, whose causes are not only well defined but also highly localized: the dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra...To go through the literally mind-altering feats shown in Whedon’s Dollhouse would be the brain equivalent of insect metamorphosis. It would take a very long time – and the person undergoing the procedure would resemble Terry Schiavo at best, if not the interior of a pupating larva...Dollhouse gets one fact right: if such rewiring is too extensive or too fast, the person will have no memory of their prior life, desirable or otherwise. But as is typical in Hollywood science (an oxymoron, but we’ll let it stand), it gets a more crucial fact wrong: such a person is unlikely to function like a fully aware human or even a physically well-coordinated one for a significant length of time — because her brain pathways will need to be validated by physical and mental feedback before they stabilize. Many people never recover full physical or mental capacity after prolonged periods of anesthesia. Having brain replacement would rank way higher in the trauma scale.
That's if I want to use Embryonic Stem Cell induced Neurogenesis to keep my mind conscious during the transition in order to retain my consciousness afterward?
I think it makes a clear distinction that the trauma is only suffered in order for a continuity of consciousness, of ESC regeneration for constant Neurogenesis were capable of keeping the mind self-aware during the process...?
Death = Nothing and a new life-form, a new consciousness completely different than anything ever seen before? Most likely interested only in super-evolving the intelligence of all consciousnesses in general?
Immortality = Miraculous pain and a substrate-independent nutcase? Possibly only interested in a maso-sadistic obsession, in torturing the experience of all consciousnesses in general?