Mini brain organoids 'reading' Braille key step towards biohybrid computing

Posted by CharlesW 3 hours ago

Comments

Comment by bondarchuk 50 minutes ago

One of those research areas where nothing they currently do is unethical, but also nothing they currently do is useful, and right about the point where it might ever become useful is also the point where it becomes hugely unethical. So we'd do well to outlaw it right now, but seems like we don't really have a moral framework for cases like this.

Comment by magimas 14 minutes ago

I don't see why we should outlaw this. There's so many potential insights to be gleaned from research like this that you just can't predict.

And making something like this illegal often has unintended side effects. What if brain organoid research is what ends up curing alzheimer's?

Advocating for outlawing parts of research just on the basis that in the future they could potentially turn unethical is very shortsighted in my opinion.

Comment by wilbo 10 minutes ago

This is terrifying. Also it isn't new: https://research.ufl.edu/publications/explore/v10n1/extract2...

From 2004.

I can't help but think of "I have no mouth, and I must scream"

Comment by JimmyBuckets 1 hour ago

Terrifying. I just don't see how this doesn't inevitably lead to brain-scale organoids. The ethics of it seem impossible. Given how we treat non-human animals this reminds me of the torment nexus meme.

Comment by thomassmith65 1 hour ago

If a device made of human brain cells were designed to function like a traditional, deterministic CPU, that would raise similar questions as LLMs raise today.

Comment by jacquesm 22 minutes ago

> that would raise similar questions as LLMs raise today

I think the questions would be very much different. LLMs are not made of human brain cells.

Comment by nullpoint420 22 minutes ago

This seems reductionist with false equivalence. Wouldn't making a brain a "deterministic CPU" negate all the benefits of using organic tissue?