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Underground > Laboratory >

Rat Neurons learn how to pilot an F-22

17:33 / 24.10.04

I feel like this should have been bigger news.

I thought for sure this would be a DOD investment, but from the article, apparently not. I love the image of the neurons actively poking out tentative connections, like the eye of a snail...

< rant>Now the military won't have to endanger any cornfed American kids when they bomb the Ewok aspirin factories from 8000 feet. 'Course, here come the Animal Rights Crew...will they never stop?< /rant>

All Acting Regiment

20:28 / 25.10.04

If they've got these neurons controlling a jet simulator on a computer, presumably then they're only a few steps away from having a bunch of neurons control an Aibo or something- if they give the "brain" room to grow, they could maybe get something approaching the intelligence of an insect. Which is sort of cheating a way to AI, no?

13:14 / 26.10.04

I saw this as a story lead culled from the Discovery Channel -- and I love the picture of the scientist gazing lovingly at his little brain.

He put brain cells on an electrode grid, and watched them grow connections between one another. That's so cool.

22:23 / 01.11.04

Don't all men gaze lovingly at their little brains? And Terminator nothing, didn't they see Project X? Matthew Broderick is going to come and hijack their rats now.

00:48 / 02.01.05

The only limiting factor in Artificial Intelligence is in the technology used to bring it about. Biological based computers (non-binary) would be vastly superior to today's silicon based machina (I hope I'm using the word "machina" properly.) A biological computer will be able to alter itself to better function in its current surroundings plus it will be released from the limitations of a binary based system. Plus it would be able to use various power sources, etc. I'm wondering how quantum computers will affect A.I. though considering that, if built, should be infinitly more powerfuller than modern computers.

NOTE: Lionheart is a total n00b when it comes to A.I. and the fields of biological and quantum computing. What you see in the above paragraph is speculation which Lionheart hopes is correct.

16:57 / 02.01.05

A braincell-based computer would be, to some extent, self-repairing, as one nervecell could expand to take over the functions of a dying neighbour.
But the cells would need to be powered by some chemical substance, which seems rather inconvenient to me. Is there some way to make a nerve cell run purely on electricity?
Maybe some closed system where the nutrients used by the cells are regenerated from the waste by an electric source?

01:05 / 07.01.05

Okay - I know the idea is a pretty old one, but doesn't the fact that someone has actually hooked a bunch of brain cells up to his computer and WATCHED THEM LEARN just fucking brilliant? This is the shit I've been waiting for since I was a kid!

unheimlich manoeuvre

00:22 / 28.02.05

Sine wrote in the summary - "It's like they've never even seen Terminator." Unfortunately they have and seem to think it's a good thing.

USJFCOM. July 29, 2003

"Since Robby the Robot first appeared on screen in 1956’s Forbidden Planet, science fiction in print, film and on television has pushed the limits of our imagination regarding machines of the future and their abilities to perform human tasks.

From Star Wars to The Terminator, Junkyard Wars and Robot Warriors, our glimpse at the potential for tomorrow has amazed and sometimes stunned us.

Well, get ready. The future may be closer than you think.

Project Alpha, a U.S. Joint Forces Command rapid idea analysis group, is in the midst of a study focusing on the concept of developing and employing robots that would be capable of replacing humans to perform many, if not most combat functions on the battlefield.

The study, appropriately titled, “Unmanned Effects: Taking the Human out of the Loop,” suggests that by as early as 2025, the presence of autonomous robots, networked and integrated, on the battlefield might not be the exception, but, in fact, the norm."

01:52 / 28.02.05

Gah. "Ah you Sarah Cahnah?"

Well, at least we see it coming and take appropriate countermeasures. So: I already know how to make plastique out of common household chemicals. Anyone have a good idea for feasible time travel?

unheimlich manoeuvre

00:09 / 02.03.05

Maybe I'm just paranoid?
The rat neuron experiments seem like a big step, but to what I don't know.

...

Intelligent machines threaten humankind. ZDNet UK. Jan 23, 2001

What was once the realm of science fiction has mutated into serious debate. While the focus is currently on cloning and genetic engineering, few people have seriously considered being annihilated by a robot race.

That is until an article published in Wired magazine early last year titled Why the future doesn't need us by cofounder of Sun Microsystems and esteemed technologist Bill Joy introduced a wider audience to the possibility that recent technological advances could be a threat to the existence of man. Joy discussed the potential catastrophes that could result from tinkering with genetics, nanotechnology and artificially-intelligent machines.

Most disturbingly, Joy cites not technophobes or paranoid theorists, but some of the leading lights of AI research and academia who have voiced concern that machines might confront humans.

Bill Joy. Wired. Apr 2000. Why the future doesn't need us.

much shorter version.