Another one of these cases came out today:

http://www.dailyexhumation.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1184974454&archive=&start_from=&ucat=&

Throughout history, there's been lots of these cases, but most of them are probably never discovered since most people never get their brain scanned during their lives.

Quick summary is people who are missing their brains can live normal lives. Most of them are kind of dumb, but there was a famous one who got a PhD in Mathematics from Oxford or one of those UK colleges.

Last time these brainless people were covered was around the time that girl in Florida with brain damage was put to death, saying she was a vegetable, while her mom and some experts said she was aware.

Whatever the case with her, the other cases show that your center of thought and consciousness is apparently not the brain.

too many threads about DF !

"too many threads about DF !"

Ha ha! good one!

These cases are interesting.

Isn't it that all the bits have just been squished together?

Or is it that the brain is really just a receiving device for a multi-dimensional consciousness?

I wonder if you can get designer brains?  All the good stuff, but less filling.

Yeah, actually that's what I think. I think consciousness is somewhere else and the brain is the receiver. Still it has to do something, and most likely most people with no brains don't live long I'd expect, it's these rare cases where they do that is really interesting.

It was a real bitch to find an article on the net about this, it's been a few years since I last read about this, but I finally found this one, which has more details about the math guy. Wasn't a PhD, was a honors degree, it seems from Sheffield University:

http://flatrock.org.nz/topics/science/is_the_brain_really_necessary.htm

IQ tested at 126. Has 1 mm of brain cells around the inside of the skull, the rest is filled with water.

A man with no brain is our president.  Perhaps that should be news.

Right, because every single thing in the world is about Bush.

> because every single thing in the world is about Bush

Just most of the dark icky things.

A parrot with a brain the size of a chestnut has the intelligence of a 4 year old human child.

So there is no need for a large brain for intelligence.

Evidently it just needs the right connections.

phineas gage "I dunno what all the fuss is about. I'm gitting back to work ... damn doctors ... "

There's something wrong with that picture.  The 'face and jaw' area is WAY too small for a human, given the size of the skull.

Funny, I remember not too long ago people here arguing that the brain was the central point of emotion/feeling.

I wonder if those people are Vulcan-like.