Brain in a dish flies plane

[psychopomp]

Though it is not a brain, per se, but a neural network of living mouse brain tissue, the implications of this research are astounding.

Brain in a Dish Flies Plane
By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News

Oct. 22, 2004 A University of Florida scientist has created a living "brain" of cultured rat cells that now controls an F-22 fighter jet flight simulator.

-snip

For the recent project, Thomas DeMarse, a University of Florida professor of biomedical engineering, placed an electrode grid at the bottom of a glass dish and then covered the grid with rat neurons. The cells initially resembled individual grains of sand in liquid, but they soon extended microscopic lines toward each other, gradually forming a neural network a brain that DeMarse says is a "living computational device."

-snip

The brain can learn, just as a human brain learns, he said. When the system is first engaged, the neurons don't know how to control the airplane; they don't have any experience.

But, he said, "Over time, these stimulations modify the network's response such that the neurons slowly (over the course of 15 minutes) learn to control the aircraft. The end result is a neural network that can fly the plane to produce relatively stable straight and level flight."

-more

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20041018/brain.html?ct=4820.39805808203

[tabasco]

1. I thought brains in dishes ...

just took over the minds of other people and ordered them to KILL KILL KILL ! Flying planes - impressive.

[punpirate]

2. Finally...

... an explanation of how Bush became a fighter pilot. :P

[oscar111]

4. Fire pilots, increase profits: peer into cockpit when you fly, or be sorry

New way to up profits!

could also replace all middle class workers, with some modifications.

"6 Billionaires, 6 billion starving"... GOP plan for the earth.

[wakfs]

3. I think this is very interesting

Could this be the basis for the future development of advanced robots?

[billyoc]

5. Finally, the mystery solved!

I guess this leaves little doubt as to what that bulge on *'s back is.

[phantom power]

7. It could be the basis for that, and other things

this kind of technology would make a great substrate for a human-machine interface. Just build the nets out of cultured human neurons instead of mouse neurons.

It's a great test-bed for building up an understanding of naturally evolved brains.

It's hard to over-estimate where this is likely to lead. If this kind of technology crosses a certain threshold, it seems likely that it will usher in the age of the post-human.

[GAspnes]

6. I just felt a chill

An engineered neural net, especially a wet one, will reflect all the kindness and artistry of any other make-a-buck commercial effort.

And then there's the question: is it alive enough to be entitled to rights?

[phantom power]

8. Did you ever read "Starfish" by Peter Watts?

In this novel, people make extensive use of larger versions of almost exactly this kind of technology. They call 'em "head-cheeses". A bunch of these head-cheeses get put in charge of tactics for containing a primitive non-DNA based life form at the bottom of the ocean. But they have been trained as optimizers, with a bias toward simplicity and efficiency. So they end up choosing tactics that favor the spread of the organism, instead of our DNA-based life. It's more simple, and efficient, than all that Rube-Goldberg DNA=>RNA=>protein folderol.

Neural nets do funny things. Even the simple ones we use today often think as well as a man, but not like a man. Within their tiny domains, anyway. The first true aliens we meet are likely to be of our own devising.

[cprise]

9. Insightful

Also, corps could put them to work on Public Relations.

Media content, ever so sweetly fine-tuned by commercial rat neurons.

[jpak]

10. Well if shit for brains can run the White House....

:)

[SoCalDem]

11. and they all said Bush quit flying

:P