Inside the stealthy startup that pitched brainless human clones: The ultimate plan to live forever is a brand new body.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/03/30/1134780/r3-bio-brainless-human-clones-full-body-replacement-john-schloendorn-aging-longevity/

67 points · 36 comments · view on lemmy.world

36 Comments

IcedRaktajino@startrek.website · 28 pts · 145d (1 reply)

No thanks. Only the worst people / least deserving to live forever would be able to afford this.

DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 144d

The same goes for any longevity therapy. The billionaire-backed company that develops it first will spend any further amount to keep it to themselves and control it. Imagine owning the only fountain of youth, what favors could you buy with it? Who could you keep loyal? It won't be expensive, it will be impossible to get without kissing the ring, and it will be taken away if you step out of line.

Whoever controls the fountain of youth controls the world. Literally, the entire world.

riskable@programming.dev · 22 pts · 145d (6 replies)

Clone your body and put your brain into it? No.

Make a better body and put your brain into it ๐Ÿ‘

Kolanaki@pawb.social · 17 pts · 145d (4 replies)

My new body needs fur. And a tail. And a muzzle. And pointy ears. And a massive cock.

riskable@programming.dev · -2 pts · 145d (3 replies)

A person with fur, a tail, pointy ears, with a massive cock

webp@mander.xyz · 4 pts · 145d (2 replies)

slop

riskable@programming.dev · 1 pts · 144d (1 reply)

It's too silly to be slop. Or should I have bought a great big canvas, paints, and got to work for several days making a masterpiece in order to convey this joke about a furry man with a huge cock?

...only for no one to see it because it took too long.

HubertManne@piefed.social · 3 pts · 144d

yes. this is the exact use case for ui. I mean it is slop but its a joke scene not shakespeare.

oatscoop@midwest.social · 2 pts · 145d

Can we also make benevolent, super intelligent machine minds to put in spaceships with silly names?

cxg@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 145d (5 replies)

Hello to the plot of Old Man's War

gressen@lemmy.zip · 20 pts · 145d (4 replies)

Altered Carbon

Oka@sopuli.xyz · 6 pts · 145d (3 replies)

House of the Scorpion

zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 7 pts · 145d (2 replies)

Don't forget Freejack!

massive_bereavement@fedia.io · 8 pts · 145d (1 reply)

So.. you ARE saying we should build the Torment Nexus?

zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 145d

I'm not the boss of you, build the Torment Nexus if you feel so inclined. Just give us some warning so we can dig deep enough to become mole people first.

Blackmist@feddit.uk · 10 pts · 145d (1 reply)

I'm already surrounded by brainless human clones.

I wish somebody would put a brain in them, they can already vote...

massive_bereavement@fedia.io · 5 pts · 145d

As the old German saying goes: "Lord, throw brains down from Heaven -- or stones: just so long as you hit the mark!"

z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml · 9 pts · 145d (10 replies)

Interesting idea, but you'd have to solve the whole brain still going through the process of senescence problem. Essentially the brain is still deteriorating at the same rate and eventually dies from old age even if the body continues to sustain it. And of course, you'd have to figure out how to safely "hook up" the brain.

SciFi can be interesting, but the pursuit of immortality or even extensive longevity always seemed to me like a very very bad idea to me. I like living, I don't like living enough to want to do it forever.

thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 145d (2 replies)

Best way to become biologically immortal is probably to solve aging directly in your own body via some sort of whole body viral gene therapy.

Then your still mortal and can be killed so you can chose when to go.

My person preference for immortality would be some sort of live un-interupted transition from a human brain to a computationally simulated one. Only if I personally own my own infrastructure though. That way I can ensure I don't get manipulated. Then probably copy my conscious 100x over and spread over geographically. Maybe keep a copy in a extra solar satellite or something.

Schmoo@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 144d (1 reply)

My person preference for immortality would be some sort of live un-interupted transition from a human brain to a computationally simulated one.

Allow me to turn you off of that idea permanently lol:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE49pA_eDX0

thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 144d

As long as I owned the machine and where my brain will live later and have personally verified that it works I'd be down

HubertManne@piefed.social · 2 pts · 144d

I mean as far as startups go its about on par making one about creating replicators but senescence is actually a good thing and we do keep on making cells. With everything else being young and healthy its possible the blood and organs will clean out detrious (like senescent cell) and allow for better creation of new cells. Im not saying it would last forever but it could possibly go much longer.

CanadaPlus@futurology.today · 2 pts · 144d

Usually you want more than you get, though.

aeiou@piefed.social · 2 pts · 145d (4 replies)

SciFi can be interesting, but the pursuit of immortality or even extensive longevity always seemed to me like a very very bad idea to me. I like living, I donโ€™t like living enough to want to do it forever.

Myself, I always saw the point of the pursuit of immortality to not actually be immortality, but letting you choose when you're truly done with the world rather than dying of some arbitrary cause out of your control.

Some might decide they're done at 70 years, some at 700. The societal changes needed to make it work would be immense, but wresting control of your death date from luck and nature into your own hands seems a worthy enough goal to me.

porcoesphino@mander.xyz · 5 pts · 145d (2 replies)

Our 70 year old politicians are pretty detached from their constituents and society. I'm a bit scared to imagine a 700 year old politician

Bad_Ideas_In_Bulk@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 145d

On the other hand, if they had to face living to see the consequences of their actions they would have some motive to not shit everything up.

aeiou@piefed.social · 2 pts · 144d

One would hope by the time a conversation on human immortality becomes relevant, society will have found a way to limit the damage such a person could do.

Wishful thinking I suppose.

Iโ€™m a bit scared to imagine a 700 year old politician

I imagine it'd look a lot like the groups that have been pushing the same issues for a long time - i.e American evangelicals trying to work God into the constitution for the past two centuries.

HubertManne@piefed.social · 2 pts · 144d

I think a big thing is getting a society that is equitable and regenerative. Not dying would be kinda great for a long time in a star trek type of universe but in a drill abay drill while we kil off the fertility of the world and some men are worth a million times the average man and some have nothing. That world is hard to want to live in.

HubertManne@piefed.social · 8 pts · 144d

we have enough republicans thank you very much.

CubitOom@infosec.pub · 3 pts · 145d
phoenixz@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 145d

The only people wanting to live forever are those that don't deserve it.

Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 144d

This some grim dark shit.

CanadaPlus@futurology.today · 1 pts · 144d

Many pearls will be clutched, but it's not more gruesome then modern medicine already is, really.

Presumably a brainless human will still take decades to mature, though.

Mac@mander.xyz · 1 pts · 145d

Bury my brain in the ground and cast my flesh into the sea.

reksas@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 144d

future might need demon hunters

arcine@jlai.lu · 1 pts · 145d

Billionaires know Hell awaits them, and will do literally anything to delay it instead of repent, atone, and repair.

You're not fooling anyone ๐Ÿ˜ˆ