March 30, 2026
Clone wars in the comments
The stealthy startup that pitched brainless human clones
Internet split over ‘brainless clones’: sci‑fi nightmare or immortality hustle
TLDR: A stealth biotech, R3 Bio, touts nonsentient “organ sacks” while reports say its founder pitched brainless human clones—claims the company denies. The comments split into sci‑fi jokes, hard‑nosed skepticism about real medicine, and ethics alarms, with a few optimists citing successful animal cloning to say the future’s closer than it sounds.
R3 Bio burst from stealth claiming it’s building nonsentient monkey “organ sacks” to cut animal testing, with money from billionaire Tim Draper and others. But then came the bombshell: reports that the founder pitched “brainless human clones” as spare bodies—and a future where your brain gets a younger body. R3 denies it, saying it’s only having “hypothetical” chats and focusing on animal research, but the crowd isn’t buying the neat PR bow.
Commenters went full cinema mode, comparing it to the 2005 thriller “The Island.” Others brought the cold shower: one user sniped that dreaming up backup bodies is wild when spinal cord injuries still mean lifelong paralysis. Another flexed receipts, pointing to real-world animal cloning wins—like champion polo ponies—to argue the tech is closer than people think. Ethics? Oh, the thread was aflame. People balked at talk of paid surrogates and asked if “no-brain” genes for clones could backfire on organ recipients. Meanwhile, a drive‑by roast slammed the article’s pop‑ups more than the science.
With whispers of a $70,000‑a‑ticket “Full Body Replacement” talk and Wired vs. MIT Tech Review vibes, the community vibe boils down to this: creepy sci‑fi pitch, messy denial, and a culture war over what “immortality” even means—and who gets to buy it.
Key Points
- •R3 Bio announced funding to develop non-sentient monkey “organ sacks” as an alternative to animal testing and listed Tim Draper, Immortal Dragons, and LongGame Ventures as investors.
- •MIT Technology Review reports R3 Bio’s founder pitched concepts for “brainless clones” and potential body transplants as part of a broader body replacement vision.
- •R3 Bio issued a disavowal, denying any intent to create human clones or humans with brain damage and disputing statements about surrogate-carried non-sentient human clones.
- •Schloendorn and cofounder Alice Gilman presented a “Full Body Replacement” session at the Abundance Longevity event in Boston, discussing animal research and personal clones; Gilman framed such content as hypothetical.
- •MIT Technology Review found no evidence that R3 Bio has cloned humans or animals larger than rodents, but identified documents describing a roadmap for “body replacement cloning.”