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"I do think there is a link in that in both cases, writing fiction or writing a computer program, at any given moment you're focusing on a very specific and particular thing—one word, one line of code, whatever."
- Neal Stephenson
 |
| Human Head Transplant | ||
| Putting a human head on a new body, surgically. |
| Briquet’s head seemed to think that to find and attach a new body to her head was as easy as to fit and sew a new dress. The neck circumference had been measured, and all that remained was to find a corpse with the same neck size.
However, she soon discovered that it wasn’t that simple. Professor Kern, Laurant and John came to see her in the morning, dressed in white coats. Kern directed his assistants to carefully take Briquet’s head off the glass table and place it facing up to be able to see the entire section of the neck. The head continued to be fed with oxygen-saturated blood through the entire process. Kern focused on studying its anatomy and making critical measurements. “While human anatomy is generally very uniform,” Kern said, “every human body has its own peculiarities. Sometimes it is difficult to tell, for example, the exact position of the carotid artery. The thickness of the arteries is not always the same either, nor is the size of the windpipe, even for people with the same neck circumference. There is also much work to be done with the nerves.” “But then how are you going to operate?” Laurant asked. “Once you place the neck against the body, you shall cover up your entire working surface.” “Therein lies the problem. Dowell and I have been working on this issue. We shall have to make a series of lengthwise cuts – going from the center to the outside. It is a very complex work. We shall have to make fresh cuts in the neck’s head and in the neck of the corpse to get to the active living cells. But that is not the main complication. The main thing is to eliminate the products of decay or infection in the body, to clear the blood vessels from the coagulated blood, to fill them with fresh blood and to force the body’s ‘engine’ – the heart to work again. And what about the spinal cord? The merest touch to it causes the most violent reaction, sometimes with very serious consequences.” “How do you plan to overcome these problems?” “Oh, it is my secret for now. Once the experiment is successful, I shall publish the entire sequence of bringing someone back to life. Well, that’s enough for today. Put the head back into place. Open the air valve. How do you feel, Mademoiselle?” Kern asked, addressing Briquet’s head. |
| Technovelgy from Professor Dowell's Head,
by Alexander Belaev. Published by Rabochaya Gazeta in 1925 Additional resources -
|
Compare to head preserved in a metal body from The Comet Doom (1929) by Edmond Hamilton and preserved brains from Murder in the Void (1938) by Edmond Hamilton.
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Tech news articles related to Professor Dowell's Head
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Human Head Transplant-related
news articles:
- BrainBridge Actual Transplant Of Human Head Proposed
| BrainBridge Actual Transplant Of Human Head Proposed |
| Natural Gait With Prosthetic Connected To Nervous System |
| Brain Implant Is Able To Capture Your Inner Dialogue |
| 'Pregnancy Humanoids' From China Replace Moms |
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'It is remarkable that the long leverages of their machines are in most cases actuated by a sort of sham musculature...'
'Briquet’s head seemed to think that to find and attach a new body to her head was as easy as to fit and sew a new dress.'
'...copy was turned out in a charming and entirely feminine handwriting.'
'It was almost unheard of for slunch to spread that fast...'
'He then started hand movements of definite pattern...'
'The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain...'
