Artificial brains are one step closer

[shadowmanwkp]

Scientists in Tel Aviv, Israel have managed to manipulate the cerebellum with a chip outside of the skull, wired to the rat's brains. The cerebellum is a part of the brain that helps coordinate and time movements, but is not responsible for the movements itself. The chip is able to interpret signals from the body, process them and pass on the signal to other parts of the brain. It is unique because the chip works both ways. A bionic arm, for example only works one way around. It can only move because the brain gives off signals to move, but it isn't able to give a signal to the brain (e.g. pain).

Scientists have tested the chip by making a conditional reflex test . Upon hearing a certain sound cue, the rats would get a puff of air blown into their eyes, thus learning them to close their eyes upon hearing the sound. Teaching this reflex to the rats at the sound cue without blowing air into their eyes and without the help of the chip failed. After applying the chip to the rat's brains however, the rats did close their eyes.

"This demonstrates how far we have come towards creating circuitry that could one day replace damaged brain areas and even enhance the power of the healthy brain," says Francesco Sepulveda of the University of Essex in Colchester, UK, who was not involved in the research. "The circuitry mimics functionality that is very basic. Nonetheless, this is an exciting step towards enormous possibilities."[/p]

Source: Link

 

[Qtis]

Mass Effect and the Geth! To be serious, this is interesting and could actually help a lot of people with certain key features in life, ie. make blind people see and so forth

-Qtis

 

[nryn99]

one day, earth will be cybertron.

 

[obito]

its cool to be young, seeing technology and stuff being developed. i wonder where the world is going to be when i'm old.

 

[Bladexdsl]

data here we come!

 

[TheDarkSeed]

After reading how they got to this conclusion, I can't help but be a bit skeptical to avoid getting my hopes up.

Did this chip actually teach the rats to close their eyes when hearing a certain sound, or did the chip itself activate to force an impulse to make the rat blink.

If it's the second one, then the only outcome I see is remote control humans.

 

[shadowmanwkp]

oops, made a preeety big mistake in the OP, it says that the chip is INSIDE the brain, while it is actually wired TO the brain outside of the skull, will fix it in the OP.

Edit: I hope it is a readable... I tried to make it understandable for the average reader, but I also needed to keep it as accurate as possible

 

[Quanno]

Hmm... This made me think about Deus Ex

 

[wasim]

just wow !

one day, earth will be cybertron.

+1

 

[Thrust]

assuming one's whole self lies in the brain, wouldnt an artificial brain = truly human robots? and since it would be data and data could be copied would you experience all forms of your "self" or just the original one? And if the latter wouldnt that mean even if you did have to have large parts of your brain rebuilt cybernetically it wouldn't even be you anymore?

 

[Fudge]

Hmm... This made me think about Deus Ex

 

[TheDarkSeed]

The same thing could be applied to making backups of your brain and transferring those to a new body. People will fade in and out of existence. If you replaced parts of your brain, you would eventually have to replace the rest as it decays. at that point it wouldn't matter. you wouldn't be preserving your body, you would be preserving your thoughts. Your thought's will still exist in the world while you yourself are long gone. I guess something like that would be useful to people who have research could take lifetimes to complete.

 

[berlinka]

one day, earth will be cybertron.

Ah you mean Mars, because that's were we probably live by then. Earth gets overpopulated, because everybody lives for at least 100 years, due to the fact that we can cure almost anything.

I hope you get the irony, but I sometimes seriously question these kind of innovations. Off course making a blind man see is great.... but what about the poverty in AFRICA for God sake??

 

[Qtis]

The same thing could be applied to making backups of your brain and transferring those to a new body. People will fade in and out of existence. If you replaced parts of your brain, you would eventually have to replace the rest as it decays. at that point it wouldn't matter. you wouldn't be preserving your body, you would be preserving your thoughts. Your thought's will still exist in the world while you yourself are long gone. I guess something like that would be useful to people who have research could take lifetimes to complete.

But it could also limit what their own imagination is possible to achieve. Transferring thoughts may not be what would be needed to work out the solution for certain things. Kinda like making new innovations, the same person might not make anything new after their first "light bulb" appeared. But it is true that it could help if nothing else

Also wouldn't people's existence be saved on sites like wikipedia, if the thought is preserved there without editing?


-Qtis

 

[Veho]

I hope you get the irony, but I sometimes seriously question these kind of innovations. Off course making a blind man see is great.... but what about the poverty in AFRICA for God sake??

That's not a problem that can be solved by neuroscience.

 

[Panzer Tacticer]

Applying tech to control an organic brain is a long way different from the very real possibility that one day your actual mind might be able to be removed entirely from the original organic host.

Now once we can take the actual mind, and remove it from the organic original brain, THEN you are close to genuine immortality as oganic body parts are subject to aging, while machinery is just something you maintain.

Ordinary medical science though, might see us live way beyond 150 years in an ordinary organic form very soon. But considering I have alreay experienced 50, I am not sure I want to even get to 100 let alone 150 and certainly not sure about 500.

 

[Thesolcity]

Applying tech to control an organic brain is a long way different from the very real possibility that one day your actual mind might be able to be removed entirely from the original organic host.

Now once we can take the actual mind, and remove it from the organic original brain, THEN you are close to genuine immortality as oganic body parts are subject to aging, while machinery is just something you maintain.

Ordinary medical science though, might see us live way beyond 150 years in an ordinary organic form very soon. But considering I have alreay experienced 50, I am not sure I want to even get to 100 let alone 150 and certainly not sure about 500.

Not saying we'll even get this far but what if the aging gene was gotten rid of? A "cure". You'd be in a 20-30ish state forever, younger if you wanted.

 

[Qtis]

Applying tech to control an organic brain is a long way different from the very real possibility that one day your actual mind might be able to be removed entirely from the original organic host.

Now once we can take the actual mind, and remove it from the organic original brain, THEN you are close to genuine immortality as oganic body parts are subject to aging, while machinery is just something you maintain.

Ordinary medical science though, might see us live way beyond 150 years in an ordinary organic form very soon. But considering I have alreay experienced 50, I am not sure I want to even get to 100 let alone 150 and certainly not sure about 500.

Not saying we'll even get this far but what if the aging gene was gotten rid of? A "cure". You'd be in a 20-30ish state forever, younger if you wanted.

Not the aging, but the renewing gene would have to altered. Aging is something that happens as a must (people have accidents and such) and may lead to shorter age. Aging in itself is caused by dying cells.. So basically make a cell that renews infinite times and you have immortality. Especially if the cell can be adapted to the brain, bones, etc.


-Qtis

 

[gokujr1000]

One day Artificial Humans will roam the Earth.

 

[ferofax]

hah, leave it to the non-christians to bypass all that ethical hogwash down the drain. 'fraid of doing cloning because of religious and moral persecutions? move to the middle east.

now, mind you, i'm not discriminating here, but we have to admit that it's very convenient doing stuff like these in parts of the world where people don't care.