New Neural 'Brain' Controller

[MrAl]

Hi there,

I was wondering if anyone else has heard or read about this new type of controller?
It is made from rat brain cells that grow and form networks and can learn.
Since the neuron groups are connected directly to wires they can be easily read and
stimulated.
This first man made brain was used to control an airplane simulator, that
crashed on several attempts to navigate in bad weather but eventually
learned to fly the simulator very well.
The feedback was simply either fast pulsing or slow pulsing of the stimulus signal.
The 'brain' did the rest!

Feel free to post links that you might find.

[hlreed]

It is not new. A lot of this was done in the 80's and 90's.
I wrote a book about hardware to do this in 1996.
I have another book not published yet called
"Neurons for Robots"
I have posted a lot about that in this forum.

The reason real neurons don't work is because they are
alive and out of their environment. Brain action is below the
level of a neuron. That is, neurons are complex computers that
require sensors and motors to be complete. That is: a brain
needs a body.

Read my book "brains for machines" (now republished as "comparison and choice")
soon to be on amazon

[ringo47stars]

Do you mean you are looking for links to that experiment or links to other people trying to do something like it. It sounds like it would work if the neural network was built too because like hireed says the brain needs a body but could adapt for short durations. Something like the 70's question to the giant computer was are you a computer or an animal.

[sofaspud]

Reading this post reminded me of the research in "Reconnecting Brain
Cells" reported in the TechKnowledgey column of N&V Jan 2009.
Amazing "straight outta da movies" scifi-type stuff.

[haklesup]

I recall that story. Seemed to be steeped in media hype with pie in the sky, what could be, predictions of the future.

The real significance of this is that scientists (mostly biological sciences) now have an actual device they can use to study the workings of neurons. An important step in reverse engineering the brain and trying to understand what the "Mind" is.

[sofaspud]

No doubt there will be research in that direction. But "consciousness" is more of
an abstract thing so I believe it is further down the road. I'm thinking more about
applications applied to disease and prosthetics. One day, "sitting on your brains"
might have some literal truth!

[haklesup]

Its like the brain is the hardware and memories and learned things are the software but what shows up on the monitor is the consciousness. We just still have no idea where the VGA connector is.

[ku7485]

Hello, haven't been here in a while.

This may be of interest to you: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg1 ... obots.html

[hlreed]

I'll say this again.
A Neuron is a function.
Axium = N(all synapses)
So for any input you will get an output. Garbage in garbage out.

[ringo47stars]

I was thinking of the guy who dressed up as a tin man from The Wizard of Oz and was put in a side show as the "drum machine with soul". Back in the 60's thing. I guess this worked until some one offered to buy it or rent it. Imagine getting a job where that is the good news and the bad news is you have to have soul. http://www.zazzle.com/drum_machines_hav ... 5510454111

[ringo47stars]

Here is a link to an article that they say they could control "robot rat" from 500 feet away Sciam.com Get a rat addicted to alcohol and it would do any thing you want but can you get it to join AA Sciam.com Say they seem to be the same result but two methods. I wonder if the first try (robot rat) would simulate being drunk. Offer a reward being the stimulator and crashing is normal for the first few tries. Same as being drunk.