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comment by thundara
thundara  ·  3188 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: 'Body Hacking' Movement Rises Ahead Of Moral Answers : All Tech Considered : NPR

    That's a 1:1 replacement, blood type and all biomarkers matching perfectly, and the body still knows it ain't natural

I'll point out that transplants / grafts between identical twins do work without rejection. And that was basically the only type of transplant surgery that occurred before the discovery of immunosuppressants.

Isograft:

    An Isograft is a graft of tissue between two individuals who are genetically identical (i.e. monozygotic twins). Transplant rejection between two such individuals virtually never occurs.

Past that, I've seen papers testing all kinds of coatings and shapes on implanted devices. They delay, but never prevent the inevitable. Personally I suspect that it's not just what cells touch, but how their neighbors respond to that touch that dictates rejection. But that's largely speculation.

Home-grown stem-cell-derived tissues might one day be a thing, but until then, we're stuck with sticking metals under our skin. Which I personally regard as dumb when medically unnecessary.





kleinbl00  ·  3188 days ago  ·  link  ·  

And I'll thank you for it, agree with your theories on rejection (I've heard similar from people vastly smarter than me) and point out again that genetically identical grafts are not the same thing as transhumanist cyborgs.