Changing your head for a robot with AI: the technique that seems straight out of Futurama

Imagine that head transplants (yes, heads) were possible, and were carried out with the help of artificial intelligence. That is what a company, apparently non-existent, has shown on video. The reactions have not been long in coming.

It may seem that recent technological advances are fueling human ingenuity, for example, to pursue the supreme triumph of medicine: defeating death.

In reality, it is something that comes from afar. When the novel was published on January 1, 1818 Frankensteinthe idea was the same: use science to be able to live forever.

Since then, human beings have not stopped fantasizing about the same thing. Now, an alleged head transplant technique, reminiscent of Futurama and his crazy inventions, has shaken the Internet.

It is a fake, it is quite clear, but it has managed to revive an ethical debate that always returns cyclically (or it may even never be all gone): where are the limits of science?

Change your head, and be immortal

If you have ever seen the comic series Futurama, you may remember that in the future imagined by Matt Groening, the heads of famous people were kept separate from their bodies, in some kind of containers. Well now A “company” has shown on the Internet a very similar technique, capable of changing the head of one person for another.

It must be written in quotes because, as might be expected, it is a hoax. That is to say, such a company, despite announcing itself as such, does not even exist. However, it does have a website. BrainBridge, as the company is called, talks about the world’s first “head transplant”. The architect of the ingenuity is Hashem Al-Ghail, a Yemeni biologist and – attention – film director.

His proposal is not only, according to him, an achievement on a human level and in relation to AI, but it will also revolutionize cosmetic surgery. With the operation, they also give you your old face and scalp so that everything looks more natural. But of course, The best of all is that with this process you could cheat death, at least if you have a healthy head..

And what happens to the bodies? Well, in that sense, Hashem Al-Ghail is not far behind either: these would be collected from “ethically grown” specimens, or perhaps donated by those who commit suicide or have undergone voluntary euthanasia. As can be seen, the resemblance to Frankenstein is not accidental, it must be assumed, nor to so many other similar works.

Science fiction or horror?

Just by taking a look at the video, which is obviously still a simulation, It’s easy to see how creepy the Yemeni scientist’s proposal is.. In fact, if it were a film, it is difficult to distinguish its genre, whether it would be science fiction or horror. Maybe both, who knows.

Even so, and despite the absurdity and sinister nature of the matter, there is no doubt that BrainBridge has once again put a topic as controversial as it is interesting on the table.

Will robotics, AI and medical advances change medicine? Will they really bring us closer to immortality? Of course, it is not the first time that this has been thought and, for now, there is no remedy for the inevitable.

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Tags: Artificial intelligence, Curiosities