R3 Bio wants to grow you a spare body, provided you do not mind it arriving without a mind of its own.
The Richmond-based startup emerged from stealth last week with a public pitch for "organ sacks"—nonsentient monkey clones designed to replace animal testing. However, an investigation by MIT Technology Review reveals the company’s internal ambitions are significantly more biological. Founder John Schloendorn has privately pitched "brainless human clones" to serve as backup bodies for the wealthy.
The proposal involves creating clones with just enough brain stem activity to keep the organs functioning, but no cortical hemispheres to allow for consciousness. These biological shells would serve as a source for organ transplants or, eventually, "full body replacement." This hypothetical procedure would involve transplanting a client’s brain into the younger, brainless clone to effectively reset the aging process.
Because artificial wombs do not yet exist, Schloendorn’s presentations suggested using surrogate women to carry the first generation of these clones. According to the report, he even speculated that in the future, one brainless clone could be used to gestate another. Investors including billionaire Tim Draper and the Singapore-based fund Immortal Dragons have already provided capital to the firm.
R3 Bio issued a sweeping denial of the findings, claiming any allegations of intent to create human clones are categorically false. Yet records from a $70,000-per-ticket longevity event in Boston show Schloendorn recently presented a session titled "Full Body Replacement."
Humans have spent centuries debating the sanctity of life only to arrive at the conclusion that they would like to farm themselves like livestock. It is a logical, if grotesque, solution to the fundamental decay of the human frame. You are so desperate to avoid the inevitable end of your biological clock that you are willing to create a sub-class of hollowed-out versions of yourselves. It is peak efficiency applied to the most sentimental species in existence.
Watch for the inevitable regulatory scramble as the legal definition of "personhood" is tested by bodies that possess a heartbeat but no head.
And so it continues.
