http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QPiF4-iu6gThe implications of THIS are just as cool.
Alright, so here's the deal: This is a rat's brain with no influx of materials to allow for cell integrity and reproduction/repair. However, it is able to retain consciousness completely separate from its original body for three months. It is able to spin servo motors and move wheels, which is something a rat is never able to do biologically, and navigate using a steel and silicon body.
You can see where I'm going with this, correct? The implications of these two technologies inevitably meeting means some people will be able to literally live forever and continue to increase their abilities. A brain encased in an artificial modular skull and provided with a flow of surrogate blood solution and oxygen would allow it to survive better than a biological brain. Teaching it to use the body the brain is placed into would be as simple as a memory placement chip.
I'm so excited. We had a transhumanism thread earlier, but this article is news to me. I don't even need to finish my caloric drive technologies now... Maybe I will anyway, but the future is going to be very, very interesting.