Living Robots

[Mike]

This CNET article tells us how researchers are using brain matter from Rats to create a living chip that can be used to create an engineered brain that is capable of learning and remembering specific tasks, sounds and how to respond.

The researchers have placed these engineered brains into a small robot and taught it how to navigate around obstacles, to recognise where it is and to respond to certain sounds and actions. This is all in the name of trying to learn how the brain picks up information, processes it and grows. The miniature brains need feeding and need to be kept alive.

The final part of the research (after teaching the above) is to damage part of the brain like you would expect in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. The scientists then study the reactions of the robot to see how it is effected (maybe the right word this time) and what affect this has on its ability to learn.

So we are creating a living, learning creature and then purposefully damaging it to study its reactions. Here is the question. Is it alive and would it be able to understand what is going on - does it feel? I see how this research is important to cure diseases but it does firmly straddle a moral grey line in my humble opinion.

[mr_e]

Damn. It almost sounds like they're seeing spontaneous learning and connections being formed from a sort of neuron soup. We'll likely never know the answer to the whole "does it feel?" question: likely "no", seeing as its only inputs are from proximity sensors at the moment. It has a whole load of implications and potential though...

I'd be concerned about the moral grey line if I didn't eat animals that have the intelligence of two-year-olds. Those pigs just taste too good.