Similar Concepts
The whole-body transplant is just one of several means of putting a consciousness into a new body that have been explored by both scientists and writers.
A similar procedure often found in science fiction is the transfer of one consciousness to another without moving the brain. This is found in many sources, most often a body swap between two characters of an ongoing television series; it occurs in the original Star Trek series twice, as well as Freaky Friday, Farscape, Stargate SG-1, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse, Red Dwarf, Avatar; even in Archie comics. Since there is no movement of the brain(s), however, this is not quite the same as a whole-body transplant.
In the horror film The Skeleton Key, the protagonist, Caroline, discovers that the old couple she is looking after are really poor black Voodoo witch doctors who stole the bodies of two young privileged white children in their care using a ritual which allows a soul to swap bodies. Unfortunately the evil old couple also trick Caroline and their lawyer into the same procedure, and both end up stuck in old dying bodies unable to speak while the witch doctors walk off with their young bodies.
In Anne Rice's The Tale of the Body Thief, the vampire Lestat discovers a man, Raglan James, who can will himself into another person's body. Lestat demands that the procedure be used on him to allow him to be human once again, but soon finds that he has made an error and is forced to recapture James in his vampiric form so he can take his body back.
In the Star Wars Expanded Universe, Emperor Palpatine is able to transfer his consciousness into clone bodies. In a sense, this allows him to return to life after the Battle of Endor, as well as other events where his current body dies. The clone bodies aren't quite as good as his original body and waste quickly due to the decaying power of the Dark Side of the Force. Upon realizing this, he tries to take over the body of Anakin Solo, but is unsuccessful and eventually meets his final end.
Similar in many ways to this is the idea of mind uploading, promoted by Marvin Minsky and others with a mechanistic view of natural intelligence and an optimistic outlook regarding artificial intelligence. It is also a goal of Raëlism, a small cult based in Florida, France, and Quebec. While the ultimate goal of transplanting is transfer of the brain to a new body optimized for it by genetics, proteomics, and/or other medical procedures, in uploading the brain itself moves nowhere and may even be physically destroyed or discarded; the goal is rather to duplicate the information patterns contained within the brain.
Another similar literary theme, though different from either procedure described above, is the transplanting of a human brain into an artificial, usually robotic, body. Examples of this include: Caprica; Fullmetal Alchemist; Ghost In The Shell; RoboCop; the DC Comics superhero Robotman; the Cybermen from the Doctor Who television series; the cymeks in the Legends of Dune series; or full-body cyborgs in many manga or works in the cyberpunk genre. In one episode of Star Trek, Spock's Brain is stolen and installed in a large computer-like structure; and in "I, Mudd" Uhura is offered immortality in an android body. The novel Harvest of Stars by Poul Anderson features many central characters who undergo such transplants, and deals with the difficult decisions facing a human contemplating such a procedure.
Read more about this topic: Brain Transplant
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