From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written

On Sat, 2 May 2026 03:29:37 -0000 (UTC), "Default User" <defaultuserbr@yahoo.com> wrote:

Cryptoengineer wrote:

What stories have investigated routes to immortality that have
some kind of plausibility? Silverberg's "To Live Forever'
comes to mind.

Organ transplants are a big part of the Gil the ARM stories by Niven.
Oddly, or maybe not for Niven's tenuous biology, clones didn't factor
in. Just organ banks kept filled by criminals and other sources like >cryogenic freezers.

In one story, probably The Defenseless Dead, a criminal had his brain >transplanted into the body of an abduction victim, who was then
"rescued" and the crook took over his life.

Sounds like the plot to a Bela Lugosi movie ... the 1940 /Black
Friday/. Which Maltin reminds me is really a Boris Karloff movie with
Lugosi merely supplying the criminal brain to be transplanted. This is
probably why, although I have it in /The Bela Lugosi Collection/, I
only watched it once: it isn't really a Lugosi movie.
Which is really too bad: there are plenty of actual Bela Lugosi movies
out there; /The Invisible Ghost/ would have fit right in to the
collection.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"
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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written

Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:

Sounds like the plot to a Bela Lugosi movie ... the 1940 /Black
=46riday/. Which Maltin reminds me is really a Boris Karloff movie with >Lugosi merely supplying the criminal brain to be transplanted. This is >probably why, although I have it in /The Bela Lugosi Collection/, I
only watched it once: it isn't really a Lugosi movie.

I liked it better when Bela Lugosi transplanted the brain of one of the Brooklyn Boys into the head of a gorilla. It was a big hit at the
malt shop. If I needed a brain transplant, Lugosi would be the first
man I'd call.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.written

Lawrence DOliveiro wrote:

On Sat, 2 May 2026 03:29:37 -0000 (UTC), Default User wrote:

In one story, probably The Defenseless Dead, a criminal had his
brain transplanted into the body of an abduction victim, who was
then "rescued" and the crook took over his life.

The assumption is that the brain is the seat of most if not all of
what gives us our identity, memories, personality etc. What if the
effects of hormones and other blood contents, peripheral ganglia etc
turn out to be more important than originally thought?

The Wikipedia entry for The Defenseless Dead indicates that it was the
brain and spinal column that were transplanted. So some extra besides
the brain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Defenseless_Dead


Brian
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