Boffins at the University of Reading have created a robot controlled by a biological “brain” consisting of rat neurons. They began by taking a culture of neurons specially separated from the rest of the fetal brain tissue. The neurons are placed across a platter of electrodes that simultaneously allow the brain to control parts of a robot and allow the robot to send signals back to the brain. In this way, the brain begins to operate the robot, moving it around and receiving feedback (electrical jolts) that tell it when it’s hit something.
According to Kevin Warwick, one of the researchers, “It’s quite funny — you get differences between the brains. This one is a bit boisterous and active, while we know another is not going to do what we want it to.” Warwick later speculates that much of the difference between rat and human brains lies in the number of neurons and not the neurons themselves. Picking on that particular statement, since I think it’s a pretty bold claim, you have to wonder about animals like whales and elephants who have one to two times the number of neurons we do. If he’s right and it’s the number of neurons that makes the difference, we are literally killing sentient beings. Of course, to the people who are killing blue whales and elephants, that doesn’t matter one bit.
This technology troubles me a bit. On the one hand, it’s really cool. Biological computers! On the other hand, the potential for harm here is just enormous. On the other other hand, it may pave the way for humans to place their brains in vats and replace their meat sacks with machinery. On the other other other hand it may mean advanced combat robots that make iron man look like a sissy. Or maybe not. The recent round of research that aims to make animals into cyborgs (and often for military purposes) strikes me as a harbinger of a world where the line between artificial and biological life is blurred beyond recognition. If a cyborg constructed in such a way can feel…
Posted by Joshua on 15 August 2008 at 08:42:04
Whales and elephants may have more neurons than we do, but most of them are dedicated to motor control of their many muscles and integrating sensation from their very large skin surface. It is for that reason that the degree of sentience is better approximated by the ratio of brain volume to body volume. Those animals (ceteceans and pachyderms) do still fare well in such measurements, though not as well as apes (hominoids).
I don’t really think that these cyborgs will add any more ethical issues than we currently face with ethics of non-human life (e.g. animal welfare).
Posted by Jason Adams on 15 August 2008 at 09:17:09
Thanks for the info! I’m sure [you are] right that the ethical issues here are all already present with non-human life from other technologies. And thanks for clearing up the issues regarding the rat neurons’ learning on your blog post.
(edit to fix typo)
Posted by Chris on 15 August 2008 at 10:12:24
I agree with Joshua that these issues are with us for a variety of reasons. As long as we have an open and intelligent debate about technology and ethics, I think we will settle on generally benevolent uses of new technology.
Posted by Jason Adams on 15 August 2008 at 10:56:29
Yeah my main concern is that open and intelligent debate doesn’t always prevail when it comes to governments. Especially when they think the enemy might develop it first. Of course, I consider the chances of my last moments being staring down the barrel of a rat cyborg’s plasma cannon to be very slim.. :)