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[Lothian]

I?m trying to think my way through a story (which I reckon could potentially go on for quite a bit) themed on cloning, genetic modification of the clones and the transfer of the consciousness of the original donor into the new body. So far, it?s just a set up and an idea as to how the original characters will start off. We have

A ? middle aged or elderly professional of some sort- fat and unfit, used to the finer things in life and heading straight for a heart attack or the like. Performs some sort of service to a secret organisation. Is told that cloning is far more advanced than commonly known and is given the chance to be cloned.

B ? the clone of A. Probably a year or two old, but has the physical appearance of a twenty year old. A?s genome has been modified to ensure B is a prime physical specimen. B has been socialised in the organisation?s ?clone pool? which basically involved intensive physical exercise, combat training and rapid learning. It?s a utopia with bucketloads of fit young things screwing each other senseless at the end of the day.

C ? the trainee surgeon. Assists in the operation to transfer A?s mind into B?s body, but isn?t yet qualified to do the operation himself. He learns how to do the procedure competently by practicing on the remaining raw materials ? ie he transfers B?s mind into A?s saggy old body. This he manages to complete successfully for the first time. He?s supposed to kill off A?s body, but fell head over heals for B over the past year or two, so he helps B escape.

So, basically we?re looking at the couch potato in the perfect version of his own body at a perfect age ? will he keep it healthy or will the excesses of the past return and decay set in. Then there?s the kid who?s gone from youthful perfection to middle aged or eldery decreption overnight ? can he turn the old body around, and might he look to get his old one back.

Any mileage in it? Any ideas on how it might be developed.

[Ender]

Brain transplants? Very messy... opening a head and removing a functioning brain is doable... but to do it you would have to section the skull in to some many pieces you'd never be able to reassemble it and trying to implant it into an nearly intact skull would be logistically impossible with "invoking" nano machines that could sort nerve fibers and attach each neuron in the brain stem to the best match of those in the new body... They would map exactly because structures at leave are controlled not by genetics but chaotic processes and chance.

Some sort of chemo-electromagnetic scanning process would be simpler... If you want to see a fairly well thought out world where uploading, downloading, storage, and long distance transport of human minds is common take a look at Richard K Morgan's "Takeshi Kovacs" books [COLOR=#0000ff]Altered Carbon[/COLOR], [COLOR=#0000ff]Broken Angels[/COLOR] and [COLOR=#0000ff]Woken Furies[/COLOR]. (They're a fun read. I listen to unabridged readings when I'm driving or working out... )

Ender

[CelticMuscle]

Mickey Mouse in horror spoof

which has also been used in:

The Prisoner: in the episode called "Do not forsake me, oh my darlin"

and He Man

http://www.he-man.org/cartoon/cmotu-...-machine-a.jpg

[Lothian]

Originally Posted by Ender

Brain transplants? Very messy... opening a head and removing a functioning brain is doable... but to do it you would have to section the skull in to some many pieces you'd never be able to reassemble it and trying to implant it into an nearly intact skull would be logistically impossible with "invoking" nano machines that could sort nerve fibers and attach each neuron in the brain stem to the best match of those in the new body... They would map exactly because structures at leave are controlled not by genetics but chaotic processes and chance.

Some sort of chemo-electromagnetic scanning process would be simpler... If you want to see a fairly well thought out world where uploading, downloading, storage, and long distance transport of human minds is common take a look at Richard K Morgan's "Takeshi Kovacs" books [COLOR=#0000ff]Altered Carbon[/COLOR], [COLOR=#0000ff]Broken Angels[/COLOR] and [COLOR=#0000ff]Woken Furies[/COLOR]. (They're a fun read. I listen to unabridged readings when I'm driving or working out... )

Ender

Ah! Takeshi Kovacs. Never read any, but I did hear about them (maybe a year or so back?) and they did sound good. I'll definately take a look at one.

I was planning to be as brief as possible on the actual transferrence bit, probably going along the lines of Hanif Kureishi's The Body, which is a lovely read. Perhaps dreaming up some nonsense about the process working by negating the electrical impulses of memory allowing a new brain to be 'written' over the old, and the process only working with clones to ensure that the physical matter is as close to identical as possible.

Originally Posted by CelticMuscle

Mickey Mouse in horror spoof

which has also been used in:

The Prisoner: in the episode called "Do not forsake me, oh my darlin"

and He Man

http://www.he-man.org/cartoon/cmotu-...-machine-a.jpg

Mickey Mouse, The Prisoner and He-Man? I love this forum. Our expertise is remarkable, our knowledge untouchable. I've watched the mouse, I'll look out for the He-Man ep, but I might have to give The Prisoner a miss - I haven't seen it and I'm saving it for a rainy day. Great spread of information sources, though.

[nypup2train]

Originally Posted by Lothian

Great spread of information sources, though.

Mmm. Yessir, thank goodness for them durn Infobahns, dere... since 1995([COLOR="Red"]*[/COLOR]), making sure that useless information remains the only thing spreading faster than my in-the-throes-of-thirtysomething-meltdown fat ass.

The recent Disney shorts like that Mickey cartoon are pretty painful to watch, aren't they? Maybe it's just me, but I keep gagging on the combined aftertaste of those sloppy "look, Mickey's cool, he's a modern dude who plays video games just like you kids today" attempts at forcing relevance (visions of a decomposing Uncle Walt zombie shambling after a bunch of kids "like frickin' Frankenstein"), vs. the contrived Disney-of-Olden-Yeare(tm) "classic" animation style. (Which, tho done by computer, probably have more computing power and implementation man-years devoted to artificially re-introducing the "tells" of crappy early-20th-Century hand-drawn cell animation than it would have taken to just ACTUALLY draw the crap by hand.)

-Pup (who has no brains in his ears)

[COLOR="Red"]*[/COLOR] - I've chosen to designate the Netscape IPO as the birthday of "The Internet As We Know It Today" (meaning the new 99.44% porn-spam-n-flash-ads 'net), which is as good a date as any. Better, even.

[Lothian]

So, a lumbering old letch looks to reinvigorate itself by preying on the young. Sounds like it sets the perfect tone for a bodyswap story.