Will future Computers Run on Human Brain Cells? - ATLANTIS RISING THE RESEARCH REPORT (original) (raw)

A “biocomputer” powered by human brain cells could be developed within our lifetime, according to researchers who expect such technology to exponentially expand the capabilities of modern computing and create novel fields of study.

A team from Johns Hopkins University has outlines their plan for “organoid intelligence” in the journal Frontiers in Science.

“Computing and artificial intelligence have been driving the technology revolution, but they are reaching a ceiling,” said Thomas Hartung, professor of environmental health who is spearheading the work.

“Biocomputing is an enormous effort of compacting computational power and increasing its efficiency to push past our current technological limits.”

For nearly two decades scientists have used tiny organoids, lab-grown tissue resembling fully grown organs, to experiment on kidneys, lungs, and other organs without resorting to human or animal testing. More recently Hartung and colleagues at Johns Hopkins have been working with brain organoids, orbs the size of a pen dot with neurons and other features that promise to sustain basic functions like learning and remembering.

“This opens up research on how the human brain works,” Hartung said. “Because you can start manipulating the system, doing things you cannot ethically do with human brains.”

Hartung began to grow and assemble brain cells into functional organoids in 2012 using cells from human skin samples reprogrammed into an embryonic stem cell-like state. Each organoid contains about 50,000 cells, about the size of a fruit fly’s nervous system. He now envisions building a futuristic computer with such brain organoids.

Computers that run on this “biological hardware” could in the next decade begin to alleviate energy-consumption demands of supercomputing that are becoming increasingly unsustainable, Hartung said. Even though computers process calculations involving numbers and data faster than humans, brains are much smarter in making complex logical decisions, like telling a dog from a cat.

To assess the ethical implications of working with organoid intelligence, a diverse consortium of scientists, bioethicists, and members of the public have been embedded within the team.
But what if the mind is something more than physical brain cells? In the past, when conventional medicine has been confronted with evidence of mind beyond the physical body, the evidence has often been explained away.

A study of terminally ill patients at George Washington University observed that immediately before death the brains of the dying showed a spike in electrical activity which some were quick to point out was real physiological evidence supporting the reality of the so-called near death experience (NDE). NDEs are often reported by those who return to life after being declared clinically dead. They speak of being out of their bodies and being drawn into a welcoming light. They also often recall observing activities in their death chamber from some vantage point beyond their physical bodies. Mainstream science has dismissed the reports as nothing more than hallucinations brought on by the chemistry of the dying brain. The GWU study showed that despite the approach of death, the brain demonstrates a remarkable level of activity, not the simple fadeout that one might expect.

Published in the Journal of Palliative Medicine, the study says that at first the increased activity was thought to be from cell phones or other electrical devices in the room, but after the removal of such devices, the effect continued, and it did so in all cases. Lead study author, Lakhmir Chawla, reports that the researchers found the effect odd but theorized that the spike was caused by discharges from neurons in the brain as they lose oxygen.

The evidence which remains the most compelling though, is the memory of those who have come back to tell the tale.