“Anything that can be done to a rat . . .”
4 o'clock, October 22, 2004
As Bruce Sterling said: “Anything that can be done to a rat can be done to a human being. And we can do most anything to rats.” Here’s what we can do to rats now.
“It’s essentially a dish with 60 electrodes arranged in a grid at the bottom,” (bioengineer Thomas) DeMarse said. “Over that we put the living cortical neurons from rats, which rapidly begin to reconnect themselves, forming a living neural network — a brain.”
The brain and the simulator establish a two-way connection, similar to how neurons receive and interpret signals from each other to control our bodies. By observing how the nerve cells interact with the simulator, scientists can decode how a neural network establishes connections and begins to compute, DeMarse said.
(Via BoingBoing.)
Fascinating, and not at all where I thought you were headed given the Sterling quote.
The article's pretty sketchy about certain details, though; it makes it sound a little like they just connected a flight simulator to the brain cells and the brain was smart enough to figure out what an airplane is and how to control it. I'm certain that what was really happening wasn't nearly so sophisticated.
...The article makes me think of Cordwainer Smith's future history, and David Levine's Smith quasi-homage "The Tale of the Golden Eagle."