Travolta’s pilot assistant almost ready to go
Three years ago…
Florida scientists have grown a brain in a petri dish and taught it to pilot an F-22 jet simulator.
The brain-in-a-dish is the idea of Thomas DeMarse, 37, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Florida. His work has been praised as a significant insight into the brain by leading US academics and scientific journals.
The 25,000 neurons were suspended in a specialised liquid to keep them alive and then laid across a grid of 60 electrodes in a small glass dish.
Under the microscope they looked at first like grains of sand, but soon the cells begin to connect to form what scientists are calling a “live computation device” (a brain). The electrodes measure and stimulate neural activity in the network, allowing researchers to study how the brain processes, transforms and stores information.
In the most striking experiment, the brain was linked to the jet simulator. Manipulated by the electrodes and a desktop computer, it was taught to control the flight path, even in mock hurricane-strength winds.
{ The Age | Continue reading }
To control the simulated aircraft, the neurons first receive information from the computer about flight conditions: whether the plane is flying straight and level or is tilted to the left or to the right. The neurons then analyze the data and respond by sending signals to the plane’s controls. Those signals alter the flight path and new information is sent to the neurons, creating a feedback system.
“Initially when we hook up this brain to a flight simulator, it doesn’t know how to control the aircraft,” DeMarse said. “So you hook it up and the aircraft simply drifts randomly. And as the data comes in, it slowly modifies the (neural) network so over time, the network gradually learns to fly the aircraft.”
Although the brain currently is able to control the pitch and roll of the simulated aircraft in weather conditions ranging from blue skies to stormy, hurricane-force winds, the underlying goal is a more fundamental understanding of how neurons interact as a network, DeMarse said.
“There’s a lot of data out there that will tell you that the computation that’s going on here isn’t based on just one neuron. The computational property is actually an emergent property of hundreds or thousands of neurons cooperating to produce the amazing processing power of the brain.”
photos { researcher Thomas DeMarse holds a glass dish containing the “brain” | Wired | University of Florida | Telegraph }
December 13th, 2007 at 9:49 am
cool, I needed someone to mow my lawn
December 13th, 2007 at 9:50 am
This is very, very creepy and amazing
I’m surprised I hadn’t heard about it sooner!
December 13th, 2007 at 10:52 am
How does petri-brain know the objective though? Namely, to keep the plane level and in flight?
December 13th, 2007 at 10:54 am
ON Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jeV77dSyMI
December 13th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
All hail our new robotic overlords, and their ethics!
December 13th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
do you think my wife can plug her vibrator into that?
December 13th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Human beings are going down the wrong path, but maybe the inevitable path, and we will wipe ourselves out within no time at all.
December 13th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Is it me or it smells like the beginning of AI that will enslave humankind ?? are those neurons 3laws safe?
I think now it is time to get ready to live underground and live in constant fear of machines coming to kick our behinds. somebody call John Conor o.O
On a less paranoid side i have to say this is really cool it’s amazing how technology evolves. soon there will be computer pitches like ” the new INTEL MONKEY now with more neurons to get your job done with 4 times more processing capability than the INTEL LAB RAT”
December 13th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
Now comes the Voyager :D
December 14th, 2007 at 1:47 am
Let me see more details of the experiment. Smells like BS
December 14th, 2007 at 11:36 am
This definitely sounds like some kind of April Fools joke. I’d have to see much more detail to believe this. I’d also like to see peer review.
December 15th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
I was wondering how the brain understands the objective of keeping the plane in the air. Then I thought, perhaps when the plane crashes the brain gets no stimuli for a period. I assume the brain prefers stimuli to no stimuli, so keeping the plane in the air is ideal. After the plane resets it understands the goal and from there will attempt to become better at keeping it level.
April 26th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
THE HEADCHEESES ATTACK AT DAWN
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:45 am
Technofobs slow down progress and technology. Creating intelligence will most certainly NOT destroy life, exactly the opposite - life will have bigger chances for survival.
May 5th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
If we assume the objective is to survive, then some sort of negative feedback would be provided when the plane falls outside a certain area. The petri-brain would then adapt to make it so the negative feedback wouldn’t occur. Therefore, it eventually learns to keep the plane level.