An individual finding themselves in a totally different body is a familiar occurrence in fiction, one which usually results in various wacky antis. But according to current scientific understanding, if such a thing were even possible, the consequences would likely be quite traumatic
Next year sees the release of the Ben Kingsley/Ryan Reynolds film Selfless, where a wealthy elderly dying man transfers his consciousness from his diseased and ravaged body into a younger, sexier one. This is quite a familiar trope in fiction, the body swap, where a character finds his or herself inhabiting a completely different body.
Sometimes its an individual ending up in an unfamiliar form, other times its two people known to each other who somehow end up swapping bodies. One of the earliest known examples of the body swap is the 19th century novel Vice Versa, but its been used often since. As well as mainstream comedies like Freaky Friday or The Change Up where its essentially a comedic device, there are variations of it in the literature, some of which try to explain the process without using magic. Richard Morgans brilliant (but brutal) cyberpunk Altered Carbon series describes a future where consciousness has been digitised, meaning it can be stored as you would a computer file. This leads to minds being transferred between bodies like operating systems between computers.
via Science fiction | The Guardian http://ift.tt/1ieknR9
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