meanwhile, down at the university of Florida they’re building an army of brains in vats
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A University of Florida scientist has grown a living ìbrainî that can fly a simulated plane, giving scientists a novel way to observe how brain cells function as a network.
The ìbrainî — a collection of 25,000 living neurons, or nerve cells, taken from a ratís brain and cultured inside a glass dish — gives scientists a unique real-time window into the brain at the cellular level. By watching the brain cells interact, scientists hope to understand what causes neural disorders such as epilepsy and to determine noninvasive ways to intervene.
As living computers, they may someday be used to fly small unmanned airplanes or handle tasks that are dangerous for humans, such as search-and-rescue missions or bomb damage assessments.
..Though the îbrainî can successfully control a flight simulation program, more elaborate applications are a long way off, DeMarse said.
ìWeíre just starting out. But using this model will help us understand the crucial bit of information between inputs and the stuff that comes out,î he said. ìAnd you can imagine the more you learn about that, the more you can harness the computation of these neurons into a wide range of applications.î
http://www.napa.ufl.edu/2004news/braindish.htm
DeMarse (pronounced ‘Davros’) went on to comment that one day (soon) his hybrid green slime and robotic flying machines would surpass the feeble achievements of the weak and disobedient human race.. and that this time they wouldn’t be foiled by stairs because now they could fly.. bwah-ha-ha-HA!
This was excised from the press release by a jittery UFl PR-wallah.
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