The Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero has been preparing for a surgery that might never happen. His idea? Swap a sick person\u2019s head\u2014or perhaps just the brain\u2014onto a younger, healthier body.<\/p>\n
Canavero caused a stir in 2017 when he announced that a team he advised in China had exchanged heads between two corpses. But he never convinced skeptics that his technique could succeed\u2014or to believe his claim that a procedure on a live person was imminent. The Chicago Tribune<\/em> labeled him the \u201cP.T. Barnum of transplantation.\u201d<\/p>\n Canavero withdrew from the spotlight. But the idea of head transplants isn\u2019t going away. Instead, he says, the concept has recently been getting a fresh look from life-extension enthusiasts and stealth Silicon Valley startups.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been rocky. After he began publishing his surgical ideas a decade ago, Canavero says, he got his \u201cpink slip\u201d from the Molinette Hospital in Turin, where he\u2019d spent 22 years on staff. \u201cI\u2019m an out-of-the-establishment guy. So that has made things harder, I have to say,\u201d he says. \u00a0<\/p>\n No other solution to aging is on the horizon. \u201cIt\u2019s become absolutely clear over the past years that the idea of some incredible tech to rejuvenate elderly people\u2014\u00adhappening in some secret lab, like Google\u2014is really going nowhere,\u201d he says. \u201cYou have to go for the whole shebang.\u201d<\/p>\n He means getting a new body, not just one new organ. Canavero has an easy mastery of English idioms and an unexpected Southern twang. He says that\u2019s due to a fascination with American comics as a child. \u201cFor me, learning the language of my heroes was paramount,\u201d he says. \u201cSo I can shoot the breeze.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Canavero is now an independent investigator and has advised entrepreneurs who want to create brainless human clones as a source of DNA-matched organs that wouldn\u2019t get rejected by a recipient\u2019s immune system. \u201cI can tell you there are guys from top universities involved,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Combining the necessary technologies, like reliably precise surgical robots and artificial wombs to grow the clones, is going to be complex and very, very expensive. Canavero lacks the funds to take his plans further, but he believes \u201cthe money is out there\u201d for a commercial moonshot project: \u201cWhat I say to the billionaires is \u2018Come together.\u2019 You will all have your own share, plus make yourselves immortal.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero has been preparing for a surgery that might never happen. His idea? Swap a sick person\u2019s head\u2014or perhaps just the brain\u2014onto a younger, healthier body. Canavero caused a stir in 2017 when he announced that a team he advised in China had exchanged heads between two corpses. But he never convinced skeptics that his technique could succeed\u2014or to believe his claim that a procedure on a live person was imminent. The Chicago Tribune labeled him the \u201cP.T. Barnum of transplantation.\u201d Canavero withdrew from the spotlight. But the idea of head transplants isn\u2019t going away. Instead, he says, the concept has recently been getting a fresh look from life-extension enthusiasts and stealth Silicon Valley startups. Career path It\u2019s been rocky. After he began publishing his surgical ideas a decade ago, Canavero says, he got his \u201cpink slip\u201d from the Molinette Hospital in Turin, where he\u2019d spent 22 years on staff. \u201cI\u2019m an out-of-the-establishment guy. So that has made things harder, I have to say,\u201d he says. \u00a0 Why he persists No other solution to aging is on the horizon. \u201cIt\u2019s become absolutely clear over the past years that the idea of some incredible tech to rejuvenate elderly people\u2014\u00adhappening in some secret lab, like Google\u2014is really going nowhere,\u201d he says. \u201cYou have to go for the whole shebang.\u201d The whole shebang? He means getting a new body, not just one new organ. Canavero has an easy mastery of English idioms and an unexpected Southern twang. He says that\u2019s due to a fascination with American comics as a child. \u201cFor me, learning the language of my heroes was paramount,\u201d he says. \u201cSo I can shoot the breeze.\u201d\u00a0 Cloned bodies Canavero is now an independent investigator and has advised entrepreneurs who want to create brainless human clones as a source of DNA-matched organs that wouldn\u2019t get rejected by a recipient\u2019s immune system. \u201cI can tell you there are guys from top universities involved,\u201d he says. What\u2019s next Combining the necessary technologies, like reliably precise surgical robots and artificial wombs to grow the clones, is going to be complex and very, very expensive. Canavero lacks the funds to take his plans further, but he believes \u201cthe money is out there\u201d for a commercial moonshot project: \u201cWhat I say to the billionaires is \u2018Come together.\u2019 You will all have your own share, plus make yourselves immortal.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pmpro_default_level":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,5,7,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ai-club","category-committee","category-news","category-uncategorized","pmpro-has-access"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCareer path<\/h4>\n
Why he persists<\/h4>\n
The whole shebang?<\/h4>\n
Cloned bodies<\/h4>\n
What\u2019s next<\/h4>\n