Scientists have grown tissue that in the lab that is spontaneously generating human brain waves.
“Neuroscientists may have crossed an ‘ethical rubicon’ by growing lumps of human brain in the lab, and in some cases transplanting the tissue into animals, researchers warn.
“The creation of mini-brains or brain ‘organoids’ has become one of the hottest fields in modern neuroscience. The blobs of tissue are made from stem cells and, while they are only the size of a pea, some have developed spontaneous brain waves, similar to those seen in premature babies.”
Aside from the fact that such moral questions seem not to apply full human beings in utero, this raises the possibility of growing non-human brain tissue, or of adding these “organoids” to animals to achieve sentience!
“[Elan] Ohayon [the director of the Green Neuroscience Laboratory in San Diego, California] wants funding agencies to freeze all research that aims to put human brain organoids into animals, along with other work where there is an (sic) reasonable chance of organoids becoming sentient. Ohayon has developed computer models that he believes help identify when sentience is likely to arise, but adds there is an ‘urgent need’ for more work in the area.”
This cold mean only one things: Creating in the lab the brains of synthetic cyborg catgirls!
Science already has developmental research including synthetic muscle, synthetic skin, and integrating neurons with electronic circuits, let alone creating biologically based cyborg parts!
