artifexFive-Year-Old Mini Brains Can Now Mimic a Kindergartener’s Neural Wiring. It’s Time to Talk Ethics.
Among pressing ethical concerns are whether brain organoids can feel pain or become conscious—and how would we know?
Lembot_0006Fuck ethics, push science. As long as they don’t kill children to get the brains out, ethics-mumblers should keep their mouths shut.
Oof wtf?
As well, if you go so far, why exclude killing children? Are you a closeted ethics-mumbler yourself?
Facepalm.
bcovertigoBut can’t we just have a LITTLE Bladerunner style dystopia, as a treat?
We have one Bladerunner style dystopia, yes, but what about second Bladerunner style dystopia?
potoooooooo ✅️There’s always Bladerunner style dystopia in the banana stand.
You know “ethics” in scientific pursuit doesn’t mean just one thing, right? ie there’s a wide swath of territory between “let’s breed these fruit flies to study genetics” and “now where did I put my baby decapitator?”, and it’s important to evaluate the ethical ramifications of an action at each step along the way.
“Fuck ethics” and “don’t kill children” are mutually incompatible statements.
You believe in ethics, just put the line at a different point than other people. Maybe that means exactly what the article says - our society needs to start discussing the situation to see where we want to draw the line.
And don’t get me wrong, I agree with you in general. Humans tend to be TOO worried about ethics, for example GMO plants are generally quite harmless despite being outright banned in large swaths of the world.
and how would we know?
Reasoning.
Does a ALU detect pain? Yes. Does it feel pain? No.
Just because it’s organic circuits doesn’t mean they suddenly develop consciousness. That requires secific circuitry and data processing facilities.
So glad someone already said it. I’m a neuroscience PhD student who works with brain organoids and the article is absolutely ridiculous.
It links to an article about brain organoids with blood vessels:
Mini-Brains Just Grew Their Own Blood Vessels—Here's Why That's Great News
Yup, that’s right: scientists are making living blobs of brain-like organs floating in a dish. Now, for the first time, a team from UC Davis managed to insert a homegrown blood vessel network into maturing brain balls—giving them the chance to mature further into the complex computational organ found in our heads.
Ok it sounds like they got functioning vessels after xengrafting into mice (which has its own issues) and it mentioned connecting to micro fluidic chambers in the future for full ex vivo, but they don’t have a functioning model for that yet. It’s a very interesting and promising area of research but with practical lab work nowadays it’s just not feasible. I hope they’re able to get a full ex vivo model working soon though, that would be really exciting!
Also, note that article’s 8 years old and way out of date.
Let’s not pretend we understand the mechanics of consciousness. If you can prove what is required for consciousness, there’s at least a Nobel prize in it for you.
Now now. I don’t understand it completely. But good enough to exclude the neurogical equivalent to a microcontroller from having feelings.
Who upvotes this phony bullshit from “singularityhub”?
There’s only one worthwhile sentence in this slop:
To be clear, there’s no evidence brain organoids can think or feel.
edit: A reason behind the hype. “Biotech” is yesterday’s “AI”.
PhDs Can't Find Work as Boston's Biotech Engine Sputters - Slashdot
The Wall Street Journal reports that Boston's once-booming biotech sector has hit a sharp downturn, leaving newly minted Ph.D.s struggling to find work as venture funding dries up, lab space sits empty, and companies downsize or relocate amid rising costs and policy uncertainty. The Wall Street Jour...
people upvote sensationalist bullshit because it’s what they emotionally respond to.
I havent read any of the comments or article yet, just wanted to predict how they’re going :
oh shit we might be able to make consciousness, if not now then maybe the future, and we should have laws in place just in case
youre a fucking retard computers aren’t people FACT case closed lol pwnd