Scientists in the US have uploaded a fruit fly's brain into a computer simulation, while an Australian lab has taught human brain cells in a petri dish to play the 1990s video game Doom. These advancements have sparked both excitement and concerns about the implications of lab-grown human tissue and digital consciousness.
Cortical Labs in Melbourne, which previously taught neurons to play Pong in 2022, has now developed what it calls the "world's first code-deployable biological computer". This system uses 200,000 human brain cells grown on a glass chip to play Doom. CEO Hon Weng Chong explained that the cells are derived from his own blood, using a Nobel prize-winning technique to reprogram white blood cells into neurons.
The brain cells learn to play Doom by receiving encoded game state information and sending outputs to control the character. According to Chong, this mimics how human brains process and respond to stimuli. While the system demonstrates learning, both Chong and developer Sean Cole see no evidence of sentience or consciousness.
These experiments raise ethical questions about the nature of consciousness and the potential for future applications, such as Neuralink-style brain chips for accelerated learning. However, researchers emphasise that the current system is far from a fully functional biological computer.
