Excerpts:
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.
