As surprising because the video is, BrainBridge is in some methods overly typical in its pondering. If you wish to preserve your mind going, why should or not it’s on a human physique? You would possibly as a substitute preserve the top alive on a coronary heart lung machine—with an Elon Musk neural implant to let it surf the web, for so long as it lives. Or think about how docs hoping to resolve the organ scarcity have began placing hearts and kidneys from genetically-engineered pigs into sufferers. Should you don’t thoughts having a tail and 4 legs, perhaps your head could possibly be positioned onto a pig’s physique.

Let’s take it a step farther. Why does the physique “donor” should be lifeless in any respect? Anatomically, it’s doable to have two heads. There are conjoined twins who share one physique. In case your partner was recognized with a deadly most cancers, you’ll absolutely welcome his or her head subsequent to yours, if it allowed their thoughts to dwell on. In any case, the idea of a ‘dwelling donor’ is extensively accepted in transplant medication already and married {couples} are sometimes stated to be joined on the hip. Why not on the neck, too?

If the video is an try to take the general public’s temperature and gauge reactions, it’s been profitable. Because it was posted, hundreds of commenters have explored the ethical dilemmas posed by the process. For example, if somebody turns into brain-dead, say in a motorbike accident, surgeons can use their coronary heart, liver and kidneys to save lots of a number of different folks. Wouldn’t it be moral to make use of a physique to assist just one individual?

“The most typical query is ‘The place do you get the our bodies from?’, ” says Al-Ghaili. The BrainBridge web site solutions this query by stating it can supply “ethically-grown” unconscious our bodies from EctoLife, the unreal womb firm that’s Al-Ghaili’s earlier fiction. He additionally suggests folks present process euthanasia due to continual ache, and even psychiatric issues, might present an extra provide of brain-dead our bodies. 

For probably the most half, the general public appears to hate the thought. On Fb, a pastor, Matthew. W. Tucker, known as the idea “disgusting, immoral, pointless, pagan, demonic and outright idiotic, they don’t know what they’re doing.” A poster from the Center East apologized for the video, joking that its creator “is one among our psychiatric sufferers who escaped final evening. We urge the general public to go about [their] enterprise as every thing is underneath management.”

Al-Ghaili is monitoring the suggestions with curiosity and a few concern. “The negativity is large, to be sincere,” he says. “However behind which are those who’re sending emails. These are individuals who wish to make investments, or who’re expressing their private well being challenges. These are those who matter.”

He says if appropriate job candidates seem, the backers of BrainBridge are ready to fund a small technical feasibility research to see if their thought has legs.