Somewhere in Florida, 25,000 disembodied rat neurons are thinking about flying an F-22.
These neurons are growing on top of a multi-electrode array and form a living “brain” that’s hooked up to a flight simulator on a desktop computer. When information on the simulated aircraft’s horizontal and vertical movements are fed into the brain by stimulating the electrodes, the neurons fire away in patterns that are then used to control its “body” — the simulated aircraft.
Currently the brain has learned enough to be able to control the pitch and roll of the simulated F-22 fighter jet in weather conditions ranging from blue skies to hurricane-force winds. Initially the aircraft drifted, because the brain hadn’t figured out how to control its “body,” but over time the neurons learned to stabilize the aircraft to a straight, level flight.
“Right now the process it’s learning is very simplistic,” said DeMarse. “It’s basically making a decision about whether to move the stick to the left or to the right or forwards and backwards and it learns how much to push the stick depending upon how badly the aircraft is flying.”
The bigger goal is to figure out how neurons talk to each other. MRI scans, for example, show millions of neurons firing together. At that resolution, it is impossible to see what’s happening between individual neurons. While scientists can study neural activities from groups of cells in a dish, they can’t watch them learn and grow as they would within a living body unless the neurons have some kind of body to interact with.
By taking these cells and giving them back a “body,” the researchers hope to uncover how the neurons communicate with each other and eventually translate that knowledge to develop novel computing architecture.
MORE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA.
And this just in from UNIVERSE TODAY:
In related news, EarthForce defense contractors announced project aimed at creating a powerful “shadow” warship using a human being as its central processing unit.
“We’re very excited about the new shadow ship,” said Gen. Wink Tinkley of EarthForce. “Using a human being as the CPU means a lot more computing than a simulated rat brain has. The only problem we’ve found is that telepaths can interfere with the human’s neural connection with the ship.”
EarthForce contractors also announced the creation of an even more ambitious program which will allow a detachable human as a ship’s CPU. When perfect, this pilot program will allow humans who pilot such ships–known as “pilots”–to live normal lives by being extracted from their ships at the end of missions.
Jimmy,
There’s a joke among pilots that flying today’s airliners takes a captain and a dog. The dog is there to bite the hand of the captain if he tries to touch the controls, and the captain is there to feed the dog.
Skynet
No wonder they killed us all.
This story appeared on the message boards I frequent with the following title:
Don’t Scientists Watch Sci-Fi?