Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero has spent years pursuing one of medicine’s most controversial ideas: transplanting a human head—or brain—onto a younger, healthier body. He drew global attention in 2017 after claiming a team he advised in China had swapped heads between two cadavers. Skeptics were unconvinced, and his assertion that a live human procedure was imminent never materialized. Critics dismissed him as more showman than scientist, and Canavero eventually faded from public view.

Despite the backlash, the concept hasn’t disappeared. Canavero says life-extension advocates and stealth Silicon Valley startups are revisiting whole-body replacement as an alternative to incremental anti-aging therapies. His own career took a hit after he began publishing these ideas; he left his longtime post at a Turin hospital and now works independently. He argues persistence is rational: no credible technology exists to truly reverse aging, so partial fixes aren’t enough. In his view, the only viable path is replacing the entire body.

Today, Canavero advises entrepreneurs exploring the creation of brainless human clones to serve as perfectly matched bodies or organ sources, eliminating immune rejection. Realizing that vision would require breakthroughs in surgical robotics, artificial wombs, and large-scale bioengineering—along with massive funding. He doesn’t have the capital himself, but he believes it will come. His pitch to wealthy backers is blunt: pool resources, build the moonshot, and everyone shares the upside—perhaps even a shot at immortality.