How would you feel if some part of your computer’s or phone’s processor was… hmmmm… in some sense “alive”?
Scientific fantasy? Or perhaps the spread of fake news? In the kaleidoscopic phase of capitalist reality, everyone sees it as they please. The fact remains, however, that last December (of 2021) the Australian Cortinal Labs announced that it had integrated neurons (i.e. brain cells) that it cultivated in the laboratory, into a chip.
In the system that the company named Dishbrain, brain cells “grew” on a silicon chip. These cells “work as wires” connecting different elements of the circuit. Their advantage, since they are elementary living organisms, is that they can change their shape, grow, reproduce (always with technical mediation), or even die.
According to the developers, Dishbrain can play the electronic game Pong faster than existing artificial intelligence devices. And of course they are excited: There has never been anything like this before… It’s a completely new type of existence… (Did you say existence? Yes…)
Cortinal is not alone in this field. Another one that promises a lot (the ideal way to fund start-ups is to promise a lot…) is the American Koniku. There are others too: a “technology ecosystem” as they say in the jargon, in all the developed capitalist zones of the planet.
If this sounds reassuring, in order for these hybrids to reach the capabilities of the human mind, they must be formatted into supercomputers; which, however, consume enormous amounts of energy compared to our cells, which are extremely modest in their energy requirements.
Human mind we said? Wouldn’t it be better for the bosses to fix us directly onto the silicon? Another “type of existence” perhaps;