Ethics debate as pig brains kept alive without a body.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43928318


Crikey.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43928318


Crikey.

The BBC being what it is, I got more than halfway through that article before I realised they weren't proposing to revive the isolated brains of dead people in the lab.

The BBC being what it is, I got more than halfway through that article before I realised they weren't proposing to revive the isolated brains of dead people in the lab.

That idea is discussed, at least in a hypothetical sense of its ethical implications, in the linked MIT article.

For instance, if a person’s brain were reanimated outside the body, would that person awake in what would amount to the ultimate sensory deprivation chamber, without ears, eyes, or a way to communicate? Would someone retain memories, an identity, or legal rights? Could researchers ethically dissect or dispose of such a brain?

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/61100...-body/amp/

That idea is discussed, at least in a hypothetical sense of its ethical implications, in the linked MIT article.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/61100...-body/amp/

Well, it may start out like that, but who's to say it won't end up like this?

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43928318


Crikey.

I guess you'd need the identical sensory input patterns that were previously 'learned' by the brain to re-establish a way of joining it's new experiences onto it's old experiences. All an isolated brain would be doing is creating new patterns onto a reasonably blank canvas (that is pushing experiences into a 'place' that we have no access to), no way for us to interact with it unless there was some shared frame of reference... you'd need to give it some senses (ideally a body), so there is a massive amount of input available for learning.

Heck, even deep sea divers have trouble recalling instructions previously given to them on the surface, when they are later deep under the water - their only change is the environment. Even disturbing the nerves in the spinal column may require somebody to relearn how to walk again. Imagine what happens when one rips the brain from all it's sensory inputs??? 

I'm guessing an isolated brain would have the potential to eventually exhibit some type of learning over time, but without consistent input/output feedback, I can't image what that sort of learning might be? I'm also guessing the required chemical soup in which the brain is immersed, which is involved in the creation and erosion of networks would be missing in an isolated brain. Much of those chemicals are tied up with learning. If you've ever experienced just how quickly and strongly a fear memory can establish itself, lots of differing chemicals get dumped into the blood in a frightening experience, and they affect learning.

But, if you transplant a brain into a different body, your not gonna be you again, no way! Associative learning (creating networks) is actually more of a process of network erosion (i.e. like a sculptor chipping away at a block of stone to reveal a statue), than it is creation (a sculptor adding and building up layers of clay to create a statue). The thirsty sponge-like way we learn so quickly when younger, seems to be because of the wide range of degrees-of-learning-freedom which are available to us, caused by massive bursts of spontaneous, and very dense network creation. Useful parts of these spontaneously created networks get reinforced through use, other unused parts of the networks erode through lack of reinforcement.

[Laird]

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43928318


Crikey.

I don't see any valid need for this "technology", and the fact that animals are being killed to develop it is unconscionable.

I don't see any valid need for this "technology", and the fact that animals are being killed to develop it is unconscionable.

Maybe the animals are being killed for ham and bacon.

[Laird]

Maybe the animals are being killed for ham and bacon.

That wouldn't change my reaction.

[Laird]

Maybe the animals are being killed for ham and bacon.

That wouldn't change my reaction.

Mmm, bacon?

I don't see any valid need for this "technology", and the fact that animals are being killed to develop it is unconscionable.

+1000