{"id":204630,"date":"2025-01-27T11:06:47","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T17:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/01\/lab-grown-mini-brain-learns-pong-is-this-biological-neural-network-sentient"},"modified":"2025-01-27T11:06:47","modified_gmt":"2025-01-27T17:06:47","slug":"lab-grown-mini-brain-learns-pong-is-this-biological-neural-network-sentient","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/01\/lab-grown-mini-brain-learns-pong-is-this-biological-neural-network-sentient","title":{"rendered":"Lab-Grown \u201cMini-Brain\u201d Learns Pong \u2014 Is This Biological Neural Network \u201cSentient\u201d?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/67r7fDRBlNc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A leading neuroscientist claims that a pong-playing clump of about a million neurons is \u201csentient\u201d. What does that mean? Why did Cortical Labs teach a lab-grown brain to play pong? To study biological self-organization at the root of life, intelligence, and consciousness. And, according to their website, \u201cto see what happens.\u201d What\u2019s next for biocomputing?<\/p>\n<p>CORRECTIONS\/Clarifications:<br \/> - The cells aren\u2019t directly frozen in liquid nitrogen \u2014 they are put in vials and stored in liquid nitrogen (and you can\u2019t buy them legally without credentials) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atcc.org\/products\/pcs-201-010\">https:\/\/www.atcc.org\/products\/pcs-201-010<\/a><br \/> - The sentience of some invertebrates, like octopuses, is generally agreed upon. Prominent scientists affirmed non-human consciousness in the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness: <a href=\"https:\/\/philiplow.foundation\/consciousness\/\">https:\/\/philiplow.foundation\/consciousness\/<\/a><br \/> - The \u201cNeanderthal neurons\u201d are human cells that are \u201cNeanderthalized\u201d using genetic engineering: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=5FBxnkzI9HU\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=5FBxnkzI9HU<\/a><\/p>\n<p>DISCLAIMER: The explanations in this video are those proposed by the researchers, or my opinion. We are far from understanding how brains, or even neurons, work. The free energy principle is one of many potential explanations.<\/p>\n<p>Support the channel: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/IhmCurious\">https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/IhmCurious<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Footage from Cortical Labs: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=neV3aZtTgVM\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=neV3aZtTgVM<\/a><br \/> NASJAQ\u2019s interview with founder Hon Weng Chong: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Y1R5k5QWPsY\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Y1R5k5QWPsY<\/a><br \/> Cortical Labs website: <a href=\"https:\/\/corticallabs.com\">https:\/\/corticallabs.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Full paper on DishBrain: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cell.com\/neuron\/fulltext\/S0896-6273(22)00806-6\">https:\/\/www.cell.com\/neuron\/fulltext\/S0896-6273(22)00806-6<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/01\/lab-grown-mini-brain-learns-pong-is-this-biological-neural-network-sentient\">Continue reading \u201cLab-Grown \u201cMini-Brain\u201d Learns Pong \u2014 Is This Biological Neural Network \u201cSentient\u201d?\u201d | &gt;<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A leading neuroscientist claims that a pong-playing clump of about a million neurons is \u201csentient\u201d. What does that mean? Why did Cortical Labs teach a lab-grown brain to play pong? To study biological self-organization at the root of life, intelligence, and consciousness. And, according to their website, \u201cto see what happens.\u201d What\u2019s next for biocomputing? [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1902,11,412,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-204630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bioengineering","category-biotech-medical","category-genetics","category-robotics-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}