Thursday, June 29, 2006

Unmanned Brain

I just read something fantastic. Scientists at the University of Florida cultured 25,000 brain cells from a rat on a plate, connected the squishware to a flight simulator, and what do you know, it learned how to control the airplane and return it to straight-and-level flight. This was in 2004. I'm stunned. I would have thought such a finding would have caused a major philosophical and scientific debate, and shaken the very foundations of the current understanding of technology. Even I hadn't heard about it until I read this piece of news .

Mark my words: future computers will be biological. I can't even imagine what will happen when these neural networks computers achieve high levels of consciousness. Of course, this has been a favorite topic of science fiction writers. As always, it's worth reading science fiction to see what the world will be like in the future.