What is the maximum percentage of the body that could be replaced with artifical parts? There are ofcourse artificial arms and legs and plastic hips and metal plates. The most recent artificial device that i’ve heard of is that AbioCor artificial heart. Also, let’s say that it’s possible to replace more than %51 percent of your body, are you still considered human?
They’ve developed an artificial kidney, but not one that will fit in the space a real one takes up. Smallest artificial kidney I’ve heard of is the size of a suitcase, and still requires regular filter replacement. It AIN’T self-cleaning, like a real one.
They’re still working on the artificial liver.
Artificial glands just don’t work. Not yet. Cloned ones might.
Artificial hearts are quite feasible, but they don’t last as long as real ones. Not even used ones.
Artificial limbs, joints, bones and such are old news.
Most of your digestive system can’t really be replaced yet.
And, of course, there’s no such thing as an artificial brain. Or a functional artificial nose or eye. They’re working on artificial ears, but they still require your cochlea to be fully functional if you still want to be able to hear.
So, the upshot is that they can replace your arms and legs and not much else. That is, if you want to go ARTIFICIAL. They can transplant REAL organs, if you wanna split hairs. Many of them, anyway.
Where’s Qadgop the Mercotan? He’s prolly a lot more up on this stuff than I am…
Oh, wait.
I hear they’ve produced a highly efficient, fully functional artificial butt, almost indistinguishable from a real one.
That could just be an urban legend, though…
AFAIK there is some work going on to prodce artificial lungs.
Considered human by who? Does someone conduct a vote? How do you decide if a person in an iron lung is human, or someone on life support?
Well let’s say that all of my body is replaced except for one eye. Wouldn’t the term cyborg or robot be more fitting? Or would I still be considered a human because I once was all flesh or whatever? This is why I posted. I wanted to know any opinions on the matter.
See the real question isn’t, “How many artifical parts do you need before they stop letting you be called a human?” The real question is, “How few artificial parts do you need before they start letting you be called a cyborg?”
Because cyborgs are cool, you see.
jb_007clone-In my book, it’s the status of the brain that determines if you’re human or not. “The mind’s the standard of the man,” as they say.
Here’s a link to an artificial lung project, btw.
If someone is unlucky enough we’ll eventually see the closest thing to a cyborg yet: a woman with fake arms and legs, breast, buttock, and chin implants, two glass eyes, an artificial heart, uses an iron lung and kidneys, fake hip and knee, and so on. That’s the most I can think of now. It would be interesting.
Say you have a totally artificial body except for the brain, what sort of systems and substances wold you need to keep it alive?
Sock Monkey Assuming, of course, that you could create a successful neural linking between the brain and the artificial components (For replacing the sensory organs, allowing the brain motor control over the new body, etc. This isn’t technologically possible today. At least, not at the level we’re talking about.), not to mention the power supply, the major demand for the brain would be blood…oxygenated, toxin filtered, nutrient filled blood. Oxygenating the blood is relatively easy, but I’m not sure that there’s any way of artificially introducing nutrients into a bloodstream. In the few experiments in keeping severed heads and disembodied brains (Dog and Rhesus Monkey, not human) alive on life support systems for extended periods of time, a “host animal” was usually used to supply blood to the recipient head or brain.
I don’t know if any of this equipment could be squeezed into a torso-sized chassis, even ignoring the power supply problem. You might see also this thread, on a similar subject.
Ranchoth
(How’d I do?)
Achernar:
See the real question isn’t, “How many artifical parts do you need before they stop letting you be called a human?” The real question is, “How few artificial parts do you need before they start letting you be called a cyborg?”
I broke my leg. I had steel plates and screws implanted to hold the bones together while they healed. I had the plates and screws removed when they did. One screw broke, and a piece remains inside my legbone today.
I consider myself a cyborg. q;}
Ok, so for a more serious answer to your question… let’s see here:
You gotta have your brain. IMNSHO if you don’t have a human brain you’re not a human. A computer program based on your brain, that simulates your personality exactly, doesn’t count. Still just a computer simulation.
The brain needs blood, which brings it food and various other chemicals, to function. So while you could replace the heart itself, you’d still need blood in the blood vessels in your brain…
So therefore you need a circulatory system, and a supply of bone marrow to produce red blood cells (unless you wanna rely on external sources… blood banks or “other” mwahahaha) and whatever it is that produces white blood cells (Gonna want those to protect your brain from disease) and platelets (you don’t want to start bleeding somewhere do you?)
You’d need the various glands and such that produce neurochemicals, which you would want if you wanted to think or anything. Also you’d still have emotions, so maybe you could be selective in the glands you retained.
The brain needs food, so you’d need a digestive system… stomach, intestines, etc… wouldn’t actually need a colon, I suppose.
Kidneys and liver technology isn’t so good, I hear? Well… maybe adding a suitcase-sized kidney wouldn’t be so bad, considering how much else you’re going to be replacing. We’ll leave this off the standard model and call it an ‘option’. We can charge more that way. q;}
Ahh yes, I believe you now have the bare minimum you’d need. You might as well keep the entire head… add some headphones if you need, don’t get the currently available artificial ears and eyes. They’re SO Low-Res it’s not even funny, definitely not worth replacing fully functional real ones with. At least, not yet.
What do you have? Basically a head in a jar, on a box full of guts and squishy stuff. Eww. Not very attractive, is it?
That’s ok, you’re a cyborg now… anything else you want, just haul yourself down to a good mechanic and get it installed!
Myself, I’m keeping both my hands, on robot arms, because I want to be able to touch and hold things. I’ll get some robot hands too, you know I will… maybe a laser, maybe a drill, definitely some clamps, etc. But I want REAL hands… you cant simulate the sense of touch. And since I want to feel with them, I’d need the whole nervous system, kept intact since nerves don’t heal, from the tip of my fingertips to my spine and up to my brain. They can be encased in surgical tubing in steel or something, but if they get cut, that’s it. No more touch.
And speaking of touch, I’m your normal red-blooded male… you better believe I’m keeping THAT!!! Might get rid of THEM, might just get a nice titanium carbon fiber protective case for them instead. q;}
So now I’m a head, a box of organs, a couple hands on robot arms, and a protective case for Dallas/FortWorth and Big Tex.
Why, I ask you, get prosthetic legs? No thanks! Plop me onto an electric wheelchair! I’ll get a caterpillar tread upgrade for when I go offroad, get an accessable van for the highways, heck I can get a motorboat upgrade if I want, I’m dreaming here. Shaddup, I can too dream!
Ok, that’s a mighty long post. I don’t think I missed anything… y’all will, I’m sure, let me know if I did. q;}
~Taco the Tomatoless
Ahh, yes, I knew I’d forgotten something:
the skull itself, and the spinal column.
Wouldn’t need a ‘skeleton’ as such, can replace all of it.
Personally I’d leave the spinal cord intact… leave the bones, save the nerves going places you want, and the ones you use to control the various other devices you get implanted. Then just make sure it’s protected by steel, so it doesn’t get damaged.
And, since i’m going through all this incredibly invasive and painful surgery anyway, I might as well get them to remove my skull and replace it with a nice steel one. Put my real skin back on over it, of course.
Oh, and heat-beam eyes. Gotta have heat-beam eyes.
Yes, I was implying a (currently impossible) fully functional human sized robot body with arms and legs and senses (and yes a robo penis too since the ladies would lust for my buns of steel) wired into the brain. The nutrients and hormones and such being provided by an outside source like a medical facility (also currently unfeasable) and a few days supply of those things carried in tanks in the body.