Rat Brain in a dish flies F-22 sim!!

Wow!! Scientists have grown a rat brain, and taught it too fly an F-22 simulator in an effort to develop some sort of biological computer:

Rat Brain flys F-22

This is truly amazing! And scary... they hope to develop one day a bio-computer that is able to think...

That's just...incredible! I didn't think we were so close to bio-computers!

Anyone thinking here of Terminator 3? I hope they are careful in what they do.

Although, it could be a huge boost to humanity as well.

The report mentions that they want it to fly UCAVs, imagine that! But if they are using a rat brain, would the UCAV not sort of wander off and look for cheese....

If they end up with 'thinking' cellular computers we will end up with all sorts of ethical dilemma's, Mr Data springs to mind immediately here, "I think, therefore I am"

Never make a good pilot though.

All the enemy has to do is tell the rat brain that the moon is made of cheese, and all of the planes will head off into space...

Originally posted by waynos
If they end up with 'thinking' cellular computers we will end up with all sorts of ethical dilemma's, Mr Data springs to mind immediately here, "I think, therefore I am"

Yeah that's true. Sentient machines are only eventual and could be a great or horrible thing.

A thought springs to mind....

If they can make a "Mr Data", would you be able to "download" yourself, thereby becoming "immortal"...

Hmmm....

Originally posted by stumason
If they can make a "Mr Data", would you be able to "download" yourself, thereby becoming "immortal"...

Good thought...I would think that although you could obtain a mechanical body, it would be just as hard if not harder to maintain it; or keep it healthy. Just like a computer. Needs lots of maintenance. Viruses and hackers would be one horrendous problem too.

Originally posted by stumason
A thought springs to mind....

If they can make a "Mr Data", would you be able to "download" yourself, thereby becoming "immortal"...

Hmmm....

It certainly makes ya think and question just how 'sure' you are that we are actually living a life which is 100% biological instead of some 'Simulation' style matrix.

In fact I would think that would go double for all those people out there who believe in Advanced Alien Lifeforms. Most of the time they are attributed with an Intelligence and Technology thousands of years or more ahead of us, so if that is assumed to be true then they would certainly have the ability to store us in a simulation. We'd just be 'brains in a jar' or better yet, 'minds within a machine'.

Well,it would give all new meaning to the phrase "My computer died".

Originally posted by stumason
A thought springs to mind....

If they can make a "Mr Data", would you be able to "download" yourself, thereby becoming "immortal"...

Hmmm....

No, you will be not immortal. Just your copy will be immortal.

No, you will be not immortal. Just your copy will be immortal.

Who said anything about a copy? I meant, transfer your conciousness to the new artificial you, thereby leaving the biological you as an empty lifeless husk, to bne ground up and used as cat food....... well what else are you gonna do with it?

This particular paragraph caught my eye:

From the source article:
For the recent project, Thomas DeMarse, a University of Florida professor of biomedical engineering, placed an electrode grid at the bottom of a glass dish and then covered the grid with rat neurons. The cells initially resembled individual grains of sand in liquid, but they soon extended microscopic lines toward each other, gradually forming a neural network � a brain � that DeMarse says is a "living computational device."

Aside from the "brain's" ability to perform complex tasks, the interface itself represents a significant step.

Yes, much research has accomplished similar things -- I remember a guy bonding proteins to silicon substrates at Berkeley and using them as biosensors, and that was over ten years ago.

But that these brain cells connected to one another and that the interface used is actually capable of connecting to computers and producing such results are themselves pretty big news in my estimation.

The methods used to train the "brain" are also intriguing.

And is just the beginning...

Rat Brain in a dish flies F-22 sim!!

So whats so good about that ?
After all, a monkey brain has been running the USA for the last 4 years

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I think this is disturbing.
The one last thing that autonomous humans could claim exclusively to themselves were their human brains.

I think we have just become obsolete.

Why support a whole human being to do thinking when you can grow a dedicated brain that does not have all our ancillary needs and desires?
.

Becasue its our needs and desires that creates innovation and invention.
i dont think this is bad,i think its the next step in our evolution,where we now make our own changes.i personaly can only imagine the end results of this for biomechanics,thats the future,evenualy science will make better organs than whet we are born with.

ummmmm.......scary and at the same time awe inspiring,i was shocked when i read the link,i remember hearing about this a few years ago just as an idea ,i never thought it would become a reallity so soon.....but.....

Terminator 3,the matrix...? like you guys said some times i feel that we may be playing god,its all good until said rat brain decides to bury F22 in to a rat hole in the ground!

Good find ,regards.

Intriguing, but at the same time upsetting. Not only does this not make sense, I don't understand how the cells could connect and form into a brain, how the brain would be linked, how the brain would properly interface, how it understood what it was supposed to do, why it keeps the plane in the air... I just don't get it. If I saw this in a movie, I would be uninterested as I would deem such a thing too unlikely to be sufficiently entertaining.

Puting all that aside, it bothers me that the brain is consious, aware and shows INTEREST in the simulation. It is alive and probably has some sense of emotions considering the interest. It doesn't get to see, hear, touch, move, do things, make friends..all it can do is play the same game over and over again.

That's not AI controlling that imaginary aircraft, that is a living being!

Besides, I think the reasoning behind the toying, or as they call it "research," is rediculous. It's entirely un-neccesary. We don't need our UAVs to be concoius, aware, alive. An AI will do fine, or a controller from the groud. I thought the whole point in UAVs was to preserve life, not have people killed by sending actual entities into combat. That is the ultimate goal, right? The UAV would be a living entity if they did that.

This is horrible and it is DANGEROUS. What happens when the bio-mechanical entity learns how it was created and that there is so much more to life than flying an aircraft? What then? Do you think it will just ask us questions so that it can better understand what we are capable of? No, of course not. It will wait until it can attack us, then destroy itself. That's what I would do. Revenge then suicide. I can only imagine how low the quality of life is for the "rat brain" which flies the F-22 Raptor simulation.

We should put the individual behind the computer coded stick out of its misery before it is informed enough to put US out of its misery.

The arrogance of man is nigh, look at what we have done. This is far worse than slavery or genocide. This is an unspeakable evil which we could never imagine what it is truely like to be on the recieving end of this "experiment."

I cannot believe this has been done. To clone a person is illegal, but to create a brain and link it up with a computer but give this brain no body is not? Do we not value freedom?? Do we not see the injustice???

Dude, don't know if you read the article, but it's a rat.......


The very most that a UAV is going to wonder about if it was flown by a rat brain, is where the cheese is......

"Dude" ..one, it doesn't matter if it's a rat or not, that's still cruel. Two, it is not a rat brain anylonger. The cells were picked apart and put on the petri dish and then grew together with the help of a scientist. That's not natural, a rat is natural, so it's not a rat.

That experiment is disgusting and I can't believe that you see nothing wrong with this. You should be ashamed of your immoral and naturally grown human mind.