Permanently Deleted

  • OgdenTO [he/him]
    ·
    5 months ago

    Good thing there is a recognized and measurable definition of consciousness, because otherwise there would be no way to know if these thousands of little brains were being tortured with every computation.

    Jk nobody knows what is the threshold or activity associated with consciousness so nobody has any clue what messing with brain organoids is doing ethically.

      • Mardoniush [she/her]
        ·
        5 months ago

        There was an experiment at my uni that involved opening up live kitten skulls and attaching electrodes to their open brains. They got PhD student applications.

        Trust me there's always someone whose marks are low enough and who's desire to be a scientist is high enough.

        I don't think this is a particularly problematic experiment if proper ethics procedures are taken, we do shit to brain tissue all the time.

        Of course proper procedures were not taken.

      • OgdenTO [he/him]
        ·
        5 months ago

        It blows my mind that these types of studies are being approved by Research Ethics Boards at Universities. I get that start ups aren't accountable, but these REBs are people that have the power to shut down this kind of research and just don't.

    • Aileks@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      edit-2
      5 months ago

      I honestly can't tell if people are misunderstanding how these so-called "brains" were created due to how sensationalist the media titles have been. They're highly specialized stem cells and they're similarity to actual brain tissue is minimal.

      Edit: Since some people can't read, what I meant is that these scientists aren't taking brain tissue from actual people.

      • OgdenTO [he/him]
        ·
        5 months ago

        So, neuronal stem cells, induced into neurons that group together into 3D groupings of about 10,000 cells, which transmit neuronal impulses, and create connections between neighbouring cells -- and are created specifically because they are capable of taking inputs and processing them into outputs...are not like neuronal tissue?

        They are human neurons, made specifically to act like neurons.

        My point is that nobody knows what a thought is, or what drives consciousness. Does the transmission of signals across neuronal tissue create consciousness? I don't know, and nobody else does either.