#2 2008-09-06 00:17:43
There's something fascinating, yet a little sick about that. They're using slices of a rat's brain to make that thing work, and it both appalls--in our apparent sang froid over chopping up and using brain bits for experiments--and intrigues, in what might eventually be possible using, erm...a whole brain.
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#3 2008-09-06 00:23:10
Lovely, cyborg rats. As if the vermin problem in my restaurant's basement isn't bad enough already.
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#4 2008-09-06 00:29:35
I have just watched video of the world's first honest-to-God cyborg.
Holy shit.
[edit] I have spent most of the week grinding my way through The Science Fiction Century (one of David Hartwell's massive compendia), so maybe I'm just extra susceptible to the wonder of this kind of thing; but I'm honestly floored that an actual cyborg, however primitive, exists today, during my lifetime.
Last edited by George Orr (2008-09-06 00:34:37)
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#5 2008-09-06 00:43:09
Expect one of our Funditard pandering congressmen to introduce a bill to prevent this kind of research here in God’s Cuntry. After all, it’s a short step from rat nerve tissue to using nerve tissue from aborted feti to produce service robots.
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#6 2008-09-06 00:48:18
I'm fascinated by this, but also a little creeped out.... Especially when they mention that different brains yield different "personalities"... Though I doubt this rat/robot is concious in any way I couldn't help but imagine the fear of some poor creature caught up in a machine....
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#7 2008-09-06 00:56:16
That is an interesting question, Dirck. I suppose the issue of consciousness was settled with the first successful transplants - as in whether a body part contains any vestiges of consciousness from its previous owner - but, still, we are talking about neurons.
Well, I'm creeped out.
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#8 2008-09-06 02:54:44
Personalities are nothing more than assemblages of biochemical variances. Some are created by our experiences in life, others are more hardwired, owing to genetics or other governors of physical development. Perhaps it is heartening that there's still some vestige of the "animal" in this device.
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#9 2008-09-06 12:26:07
Dirckman wrote:
I'm fascinated by this, but also a little creeped out.... Especially when they mention that different brains yield different "personalities"... Though I doubt this rat/robot is concious in any way I couldn't help but imagine the fear of some poor creature caught up in a machine....
I have to wonder if they tried harvesting different sets of neurons from the same brain - just to see if the "personality" was consistent from all samplings.
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