quote:It sounds like the stuff of science fiction: a brain nurtured in a Petri dish learns to pilot a fighter plane as scientists develop a new breed of "living" computer. In ground-breaking experiments in a Florida laboratory, however, that is exactly what is happening.
The "brain", grown from 25,000 neural cells extracted from a single rat embryo, has been taught to fly an F-22 jet simulator by scientists at the University of Florida.
Who was sitting around and suddenly went, "I know! We'll attatch a rat brain to a computer and teach it to fly a jet!"? We've come a long way from, "Eureka!" folks...
Posts: 1295 | Registered: Jan 2003
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Tammy, why should it bother you? If I understood it well, it means replacing an 'artificial neural network' (ANN) with a real one. It's kind of the same thing... Think that at first we tried to COPY the real brain by coming up with ANNs, so this just means that we've managed to learn how to connect to the real thing, and I think it's also another proof that our understanding of the brain is right. We're probably heading in the direction of having things directly implanted in our brains - the way people in Matrix 'learned' to fly a plane, or use a weapon, etc. Hmm... This also means you could have governments programming people... Now you really have a reason to freak out! Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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When I saw this thread, I kept thinking "ratbert" instead of rat brain.
eslaine, athough it's vague, the article does say "The 25,000 neurons were immersed in a specialised liquid suspension to keep them alive ." Obviously the wonder liquid is Coca-Cola.
I had no idea biological neural nets were becoming so advanced...it's a real break-through.
Posts: 6316 | Registered: Jun 2003
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now, if the government could "program a brain" wouldn't that end insubordination in the military and create the true "ultimate fighting force"? I mean if a person were "programed" to go on a suicide mission, they wouldn't even consider survival over completing their objective, or worry about collateral damage...
Posts: 1094 | Registered: Mar 2004
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This follows work where they tried to get rat neurons to control a really small rolling robot.
People have been using artifical neural networks for a while, and there is a gulf of differences between the way the idealized artifical neurons and their networks function from how the real things function. This sort of work is a measured approach to try and get a better idea of how real neurons work in non-natural settings that is reminiscent of how artificial networks might be used.
Posts: 4482 | Registered: May 2000
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