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Neanderthal ‘minibrains’ grown in dish

sciencemag.org

11–20 of 55 posts

Re: Neanderthal ‘minibrains’ grown in dish

#11
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Luckily this is not the only direction: > To test his theory, he nailed his wife’s dog to a board and chopped it open while the poor thing was still alive. https://knowledgenuts.com/2013/09/29/descartes-dissected-his...

>Descartes never married, but he did have a daughter, Francine, born in the Netherlands in 1635. https://www.biography.com/people/ren-descartes-37613 Not sure if the rest is credible...

It might be a misunderstanding. In many languages, there is one commonly used word that translates (out of context) to "wife", "unmarried partner" and "woman" at the same time.

Re: Neanderthal ‘minibrains’ grown in dish

#13

... wiring the organoids to robots ... = daleks

dunno man... expecting a neanderthal brain to crisply repeat a four syllable word is a bit much...

That word may be just an audio file in the robot's memory, that is played back when a single particular neuron fires.

Re: Neanderthal ‘minibrains’ grown in dish

#14

Obviously this is a long, long way from a functional brain being grown. But I have to wonder where the moral line is drawn when you're talking about growing an organ that (may-or-may-not) hold the ability to form a level of consciousness.

There no explicit need for a "Complete brain". Here is example of functional network with 25k neurons: Rat brain cells organize, learn to control electrodes and fly a fighter jet in a simulation. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/10/041022104658.h...

Re: Neanderthal ‘minibrains’ grown in dish

#15
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I may be so bold, I think that line will get pushed farther out every generation - who will simply accept past work as the then status quo ante. Just a hundred years back, cloning would have been considered morally reprehensible. Today, many people accept it as fact. Each generation only pushes the boundary just a bit (in the grand scheme of things) further; and only things far beyond the immediate realm of practi…

When was cloning considered morally reprehensible? By who's standard are you taking as an authority here?

Here’s an article from as late as 1997. “Why Human Cloning Is Immoral” https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?rec...

2001 - "Catholic Church Condemns Human Cloning" https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-a-2001-11-26-22-catholic-6640...

1998 - Churches Condemn Plan to Clone Humans https://www.csmonitor.com/1998/0113/011398.feat.feat.2.html

I never spoke as an authority, just made some remarks.

Re: Neanderthal ‘minibrains’ grown in dish

#16
> Several of these differences mirror what Muotri has found studying neuronal development in the brains of children with autism. "I don't want families to conclude that I'm comparing autistic kids to Neanderthals, but it's an important observation," says Muotri, who has a stepson with autism. "In modern humans, these types of changes are linked to defects in brain development that are needed for socialization. If we believe that's one of our advantages over Neanderthals, it's relevant."

Re: Neanderthal ‘minibrains’ grown in dish

#17
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When was cloning considered morally reprehensible? By who's standard are you taking as an authority here?

Here’s an article from as late as 1997. “Why Human Cloning Is Immoral” https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?rec... 2001 - "Catholic Church Condemns Human Cloning" https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-a-2001-11-26-22-catholic-6640... 1998 - Churches Condemn Plan to Clone Humans https://www.csmonitor.com/1998/0113/011398.feat.feat.2.html I never spoke as an authority, just made some remarks.

Surveys of populations have been shown opposition to the idea too. The idea that the Catholic Church might be considered a moral authority to any significant number of people is troubling. https://news.gallup.com/poll/5098/americans-oppose-idea-huma...

https://news.gallup.com/poll/5098/americans-oppose-idea-huma...

Re: Neanderthal ‘minibrains’ grown in dish

#18
post #5

now all we need is to connect them to a virtual grid of sorts. some kind of brain over silicon tech.

BAAS (Brains As A Service). Good idea, know plenty who could use it.

One could then provision a fleet of brains as parallel processors to do machine learning.

Re: Neanderthal ‘minibrains’ grown in dish

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here’s an article from as late as 1997. “Why Human Cloning Is Immoral” https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?rec... 2001 - "Catholic Church Condemns Human Cloning" https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-a-2001-11-26-22-catholic-6640... 1998 - Churches Condemn Plan to Clone Humans https://www.csmonitor.com/1998/0113/011398.feat.feat.2.html I never spoke as an authority, just made some remarks.

Surveys of populations have been shown opposition to the idea too. The idea that the Catholic Church might be considered a moral authority to any significant number of people is troubling. https://news.gallup.com/poll/5098/americans-oppose-idea-huma... https://news.gallup.com/poll/5098/americans-oppose-idea-huma...

"The idea that the Catholic Church might be considered a moral authority to any significant number of people is troubling."

You mean outside of the 1.2 billion Catholics?

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