<p>One word objection : volunteer !</p>
<p>I cannot see who would volunteer who would also be suitable.  There is also the question of what happens when/if they get back ?</p>
<p>Sending a brain by itself is pointless.  We send humans because they are general purpose problem solving machines capable of independent movement and have hands with opposable thumbs.  All a &quot;head in a jar&quot; can do is exactly what a computer could do with a great deal less effort.  If you are not sending a body, there is just no point in sending a brain.</p>
<p>Also be cautious reading headline grabbing stories like that.  The definition of alive is important here as that is quite different from keeping it 100% intact.  Memories can be lost and the subject brain become the equivalent of a lump of living tissue that no longer properly controls the body it started in.  Alive just means cells still operating at that level, not brain as a whole 100% intact and ready for reinsertion to the body it came from.</p>
<p>Computers do it better, faster and more efficiently than a human head.  Humans may want to go into space, but scientists have very limited uses for them - and indeed many people would prefer use trained monkeys (and we have).</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the required technology for noggin based exploration is far further along than whole body space exploration</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Obviously this is wrong.</p>
<p>We can right now send an entire body into space and, baring accident, get them back not only alive but able to give interviews on TV.  We cannot keep a human brain alive now in the manner you describe and this won't happen any time soon (or probably even in my lifetime).</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-23T16:58:28.557Z
Well, you don't need volunteers. There's tons of people on death row, hence capit-al punishment.
ATL_DEV
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-23T17:01:17.263Z
As far as technology, we can send them into orbit and possibly the moon, but to distant planets, it's much harder.
ATL_DEV
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-23T17:03:11.323Z
Another set of volunteers can be people whose bodies have completely deteriorated to the point of being useless.
ATL_DEV
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-23T17:26:23.937Z
NASA astronauts are normally PhD level science or engineering types with a solid reputation for reliability and integrity.  How could forced criminals sentenced to death be a replacement ?  There is no purpose in sending humans to distant planets now.  Finally not all that many people intellectually or psychologically suited to space travel to start with (as vital crew), and very unlikely to get many people with dysfunctional bodies who actually want to loose that body and who would be suitable.  Body not working ?  You want it fixed not lost.  It's nonsense.
StephenG - Help Ukraine
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-23T17:38:36.993Z
Hello Houston?  We can communicate with the noggin remotely and monitor it along with providing it instructions from earth by a PH.D. of your choice. As for having the psychological wherewithal, medications, such as anti-depressants and or opiates can be administered in flight when and if brain signaling suggests distress. I agree there's no purpose to sending humans to distance planets, but neither was there one for sending men to the moon and certainly is there case for colonizing mars.
ATL_DEV
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-23T17:44:03.450Z
I think you're unsettled by the concept as many are unsettled by the Singularity. There's also a ghoulishness about it. Regardless, you haven't surveyed the whole of humanity to claim no one is willing to noggate into space. There were millions of people who volunteered to venture to Mars. Elon Musk even found a willing Chinese billionaire to volunteer as a astronaut, which is very compelling considering what he has to lose.
ATL_DEV
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-24T03:03:31.273Z
not at all the same thing, but somewhat related: [The Audacious Plan to Save This Man’s Life by Transplanting His Head](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/09/the-audacious-plan-to-save-this-mans-life-by-transplanting-his-head/492755/) and then [Volunteer for the First Ever Head Transplant Surgery Changes His Mind | Good Morning Britain](https://youtu.be/iGo5UVf_bxE)
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-03-20T05:05:46.080Z
@uhoh I wonder if "Good Morning Britain" is aware of the self contradictory title. LOL!
ATL_DEV
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-03-20T05:09:55.743Z
@ATL_DEV ha! I wouldn't have noticed that unless you pointed it out, probably had my head on backwards...
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-03-20T13:22:46.747Z
@uhoh  Well, next time you change your mind, make sure it's in the correct orientation.
ATL_DEV
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-23T16:51:43.630Z
2020-09-23T16:51:43.630Z
StephenG - Help Ukraine
<p>What makes human space exploration very difficult is the infrastructure required to support the human body outside earth. It must be researched, developed, and tested thoroughly which can take many years and can quickly drain budgets. Once ready, it requires even more resources just to launch into space due to the added weight and resources needed to keep the body alive and comfortable.  In contrast, it's far simpler and less expensive to send unmanned probes. In fact, it has already been achieved.  For whatever reason, perhaps to stroke the collective ego of homo sapiens on earth, space exploration without humans is unsatisfactory. Has a compromise ever been considered?</p>
<p>Instead of sending entire bodies into space, why not just send human heads into space?  A human head has less mass and requires less energy than a complete body. A smaller, more compact infrastructure can supply the brain with the proper nutrients and oxygen. The spacecraft can be as small as a probe. If a noggin in space is still unsatisfactory, the spacecraft can carry the required chemicals to regenerate a full human body for the purposes of colonization (eases budget concerns by western governments). Moreover, the required technology for noggin-based exploration is further along than whole-body space exploration.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/04/25/240742/researchers-are-keeping-pig-brains-alive-outside-the-body/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/04/25/240742/researchers-are-keeping-pig-brains-alive-outside-the-body/</a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-23T16:56:52.307Z
Why not transfer the question?
ATL_DEV
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-23T17:05:04.910Z
Can you get someone who can?
ATL_DEV
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-23T18:51:20.907Z
I can't see this idea catching on, mate, to be honest. However, it's kind of interestingly macabre.
White Prime
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-23T19:25:35.913Z
@ATL_DEV  "Why not transfer the question?!"  You can do this. It's easy.  Delete the question here.  Then ask a new question on Space Exploration.  No need for mods (who don't get paid)
James K
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-23T20:37:58.320Z
Please do not migrate this question. Just downvote and close.
David Hammen
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-24T03:12:54.620Z
The key to this technology [has something to do with the jar fluid](https://youtu.be/e0uUGNGwiO0?t=77)
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-24T16:19:21.590Z
@antispinwards, Sorry, but you spoke as if you were a moderator or moderator in training.
ATL_DEV
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-09-24T16:21:14.370Z
@JamesK I thought questions could be easily transferred by a moderator at the click of a button. Deleting the question destroys the answers and comments.
ATL_DEV
<space><space-probe>
Has the idea of sending human heads instead of entire human bodies been considered in space exploration?
ATL_DEV
# Has the idea of sending human heads instead of entire human bodies been considered in space exploration?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-09-23)

What makes human space exploration very difficult is the infrastructure required to support the human body outside earth. It must be researched, developed, and tested thoroughly which can take many years and can quickly drain budgets. Once ready, it requires even more resources just to launch into space due to the added weight and resources needed to keep the body alive and comfortable. In contrast, it's far simpler and less expensive to send unmanned probes. In fact, it has already been achieved. For whatever reason, perhaps to stroke the collective ego of homo sapiens on earth, space exploration without humans is unsatisfactory. Has a compromise ever been considered?

Instead of sending entire bodies into space, why not just send human heads into space? A human head has less mass and requires less energy than a complete body. A smaller, more compact infrastructure can supply the brain with the proper nutrients and oxygen. The spacecraft can be as small as a probe. If a noggin in space is still unsatisfactory, the spacecraft can carry the required chemicals to regenerate a full human body for the purposes of colonization (eases budget concerns by western governments). Moreover, the required technology for noggin-based exploration is further along than whole-body space exploration.

<https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/04/25/240742/researchers-are-keeping-pig-brains-alive-outside-the-body/>

**Tags:** space, space-probe

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Why not transfer the question?  
> **username_0**: Can you get someone who can?  
> **username_1**: I can't see this idea catching on, mate, to be honest. However, it's kind of interestingly macabre.  
> **username_2**: @username_0  "Why not transfer the question?!"  You can do this. It's easy.  Delete the question here.  Then ask a new question on Space Exploration.  No need for mods (who don't get paid)  
> **username_3**: Please do not migrate this question. Just downvote and close.  
> **username_4**: The key to this technology [has something to do with the jar fluid](https://youtu.be/e0uUGNGwiO0?t=77)  
> **username_0**: @antispinwards, Sorry, but you spoke as if you were a moderator or moderator in training.  
> **username_0**: @username_2 I thought questions could be easily transferred by a moderator at the click of a button. Deleting the question destroys the answers and comments.  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_5 on 2020-09-23. Score: 3

One word objection : volunteer !

I cannot see who would volunteer who would also be suitable. There is also the question of what happens when/if they get back ?

Sending a brain by itself is pointless. We send humans because they are general purpose problem solving machines capable of independent movement and have hands with opposable thumbs. All a "head in a jar" can do is exactly what a computer could do with a great deal less effort. If you are not sending a body, there is just no point in sending a brain.

Also be cautious reading headline grabbing stories like that. The definition of alive is important here as that is quite different from keeping it 100% intact. Memories can be lost and the subject brain become the equivalent of a lump of living tissue that no longer properly controls the body it started in. Alive just means cells still operating at that level, not brain as a whole 100% intact and ready for reinsertion to the body it came from.

Computers do it better, faster and more efficiently than a human head. Humans may want to go into space, but scientists have very limited uses for them - and indeed many people would prefer use trained monkeys (and we have).

> the required technology for noggin based exploration is far further along than whole body space exploration

Obviously this is wrong.

We can right now send an entire body into space and, baring accident, get them back not only alive but able to give interviews on TV. We cannot keep a human brain alive now in the manner you describe and this won't happen any time soon (or probably even in my lifetime).

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Well, you don't need volunteers. There's tons of people on death row, hence capit-al punishment.  
> **username_0**: As far as technology, we can send them into orbit and possibly the moon, but to distant planets, it's much harder.  
> **username_0**: Another set of volunteers can be people whose bodies have completely deteriorated to the point of being useless.  
> **username_5**: NASA astronauts are normally PhD level science or engineering types with a solid reputation for reliability and integrity.  How could forced criminals sentenced to death be a replacement ?  There is no purpose in sending humans to distant planets now.  Finally not all that many people intellectually or psychologically suited to space travel to start with (as vital crew), and very unlikely to get many people with dysfunctional bodies who actually want to loose that body and who would be suitable.  Body not working ?  You want it fixed not lost.  It's nonsense.  
> **username_0**: Hello Houston?  We can communicate with the noggin remotely and monitor it along with providing it instructions from earth by a PH.D. of your choice. As for having the psychological wherewithal, medications, such as anti-depressants and or opiates can be administered in flight when and if brain signaling suggests distress. I agree there's no purpose to sending humans to distance planets, but neither was there one for sending men to the moon and certainly is there case for colonizing mars.  
> **username_0**: I think you're unsettled by the concept as many are unsettled by the Singularity. There's also a ghoulishness about it. Regardless, you haven't surveyed the whole of humanity to claim no one is willing to noggate into space. There were millions of people who volunteered to venture to Mars. Elon Musk even found a willing Chinese billionaire to volunteer as a astronaut, which is very compelling considering what he has to lose.  
> **username_4**: not at all the same thing, but somewhat related: [The Audacious Plan to Save This Man’s Life by Transplanting His Head](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/09/the-audacious-plan-to-save-this-mans-life-by-transplanting-his-head/492755/) and then [Volunteer for the First Ever Head Transplant Surgery Changes His Mind | Good Morning Britain](https://youtu.be/iGo5UVf_bxE)  
> **username_0**: @username_4 I wonder if "Good Morning Britain" is aware of the self contradictory title. LOL!  
> **username_4**: @username_0 ha! I wouldn't have noticed that unless you pointed it out, probably had my head on backwards...  
> **username_0**: @username_4  Well, next time you change your mind, make sure it's in the correct orientation.  

---

