In a news story that sounds like it came directly from Margaret Atwood’s speculative fiction, scientists have grown lumps of brain tissue then implanted them into animals.
For those not familiar with Atwood’s Oryx and Crake series, there is an animal called a pigoon which was created to host human organs for transplantation. When society collapsed, these animals were able to terrorize the remaining humans because of their increased intelligence.
The brains lumps grown in the lab are developed from stem cells and end up the size of a pea. They are used to investigate all sorts of disorders and conditions, from schizophrenia to Parkinsons.
The terrifying part, and the reason this story is in the news in the first place, is that the pieces of brain tissue have developed spontaneous brain waves, like those found in premature babies.
The question: where is the line between a test on brain tissue and human experimentation?
Neuroscientists are split, some believing the ethical line is coming too close and saying the experiments are harmless.
My question: how would the researchers know if the piece of brain was sentient?
Think about any story ever told about artificial intelligence. Over time, the coninfed intelligence gets out. What if a lump of brain was the focal point of this type of story?
Related, could a duplicate brain be made from stem cells at birth? So every human has their brain, and another brain lying in wait. Then, when the government decides the human is powerful/smart enough to keep around, they could use the lab-grown brain to host the consciousness of the human they want to duplicate, creating a sort of AI based on biology, a mind without a body. Furthermore, if there was a whole warehouse of these minds, there could be a unified network of them all, living in a simulated reality.
If you find this sort of thought experiment interesting, read Phil Dick’s Ubik, where the minds of the dead exist in a sort of altered state and can be communicated with while they decay over a period of years.
