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Neurons in a dish learn to play Pong

nature.com

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Re: Neurons in a dish learn to play Pong

#21

Post by sally_glance »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #5

A question for someone who understands the neurology and biology of this much more than I do: Once I have a group of neurons like this trained to do something, can I actually count on them to continue performing that task until they die? Or is it possible they spontaneously reorganize or "learn" a previously unseen behavioral pattern?

Disclaimer: Also not a neurologist.

I believe they certainly will reorganize in case of a (local nutrient) scarcity or damage event. That might result in "unseen" patterns as well, and by "unseen" I mean kinda random.

Re: Neurons in a dish learn to play Pong

#23

Post by MarcelOlsz »

thrown_22 wrote: post #19
ALittleLight wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems like a research area so horrific it could exist only in a comic book. This type of thing should not be funded or researched. I'm surprised it needs to be said but we shouldn't grow human brains to experiment on them. Maybe if we could understand and quantify consciousness and be sure we weren't subjecting something to hell - but certainly not while we can't do that.

Quoted post unavailable.

YC '23 - Stem Cell Recycling - Stem.ly

It almost writes itself.

Re: Neurons in a dish learn to play Pong

#24

Post by bigyikes »

thrown_22 wrote: post #19
ALittleLight wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems like a research area so horrific it could exist only in a comic book. This type of thing should not be funded or researched. I'm surprised it needs to be said but we shouldn't grow human brains to experiment on them. Maybe if we could understand and quantify consciousness and be sure we weren't subjecting something to hell - but certainly not while we can't do that.

Quoted post unavailable.

Flame bait comment. It’s not a valid comparison.

Terminating a natural embryo is not the same as growing an artificial brain which, for all we know, might experience the worst kind of hell imaginable.

Re: Neurons in a dish learn to play Pong

#26

Post by thrown_22 »

bigyikes wrote: post #24
thrown_22 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Flame bait comment. It’s not a valid comparison. Terminating a natural embryo is not the same as growing an artificial brain which, for all we know, might experience the worst kind of hell imaginable.

No post body was provided.

Re: Neurons in a dish learn to play Pong

#27

Post by im3w1l »

So we can create microbrains of human neurons. Cool. But what about a gigabrain? Something smarter than all of us?

For the record I do think such a creation should have personhood. And have the right to learn about and interact with the real world.

Re: Neurons in a dish learn to play Pong

#28

Post by wruza »

p1necone wrote: post #11
ALittleLight wrote: post #7

They are using human neurons for this? The one substrate we can be sure of is capable of producing consciousness?

Yeah this makes me really uncomfortable. We have no idea really what causes consciousness to arise, but "enough actual animal/human neurons to perform complex tasks" doesn't seem like an unlikely way to do it to me. "Unimaginable suffering in a petri dish" is not something I want even a tiny chance of creating.

To evaluate these chances, one has to understand what “suffering” is. It may (or may not) be purely evolutional thing which cannot be easily reproduced in a dish. Perhaps the whole thing is a plague that only emerges in/for natural-life conditions. While the configuration space is likely(?) almost infinite, the natural selector is only one.

Re: Neurons in a dish learn to play Pong

#29

Post by tshaddox »

sva_ wrote: post #20
ALittleLight wrote: post #7

They are using human neurons for this? The one substrate we can be sure of is capable of producing consciousness?

> The one substrate we can be sure of is capable of producing consciousness? How can you be sure that anyone other than you is conscious? Why shouldn't animals be conscious?

> How can you be sure that anyone other than you is conscious?

That doesn't seem like a more or less difficult question than asking how I can be sure that human neurons are the substrate responsible for producing consciousness. If it turns out that the other humans I observe only seem like they're conscious, then it could also turn out that my neurons only seem to be the substrate producing my consciousness. Of course, this is just terrible epistemology.

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