Posted on 03/07/2026 9:33:37 AM PST by yesthatjallen
A couple of years ago, a company called Cortical Labs released a video that showed a simplified version of Pong being played by a culture of human neurons in a Petri dish. The idea that a bunch of neurons in a dish can do anything is impressive enough, but it turns out that things have gotten significantly crazier since then, because the company has now managed to get a similar culture of neurons to play Doom.
In a very slick marketing video, the company demonstrates “real neuron gameplay”: Doom running on its CL-1 neural computing system, a microchip upon which 200,000 human neurons are mounted in something called a “multi-electrode array.” (For comparison, while the exact number of neurons in an average human brain remains the subject of some debate, it’s in the order of tens of billions—which really just reinforces how astonishingly powerful and complex our own brains are.)
Anyway, this video is wild—and it just gets wilder as various company representatives explain exactly what’s going on.
First, the chip isn’t running Doom; it’s playing Doom. Or, to be more accurate, various elements of the on-screen data are being mapped to patterns of electric stimuli, which are then transmitted to the neurons. The neurons respond to these stimuli with signals of their own, which control the on-screen character’s actions: “If the neurons fire in a specific pattern, Doomguy shoots. If they fire in another pattern, he moves to the right. And so on.”
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at gizmodo.com ...
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So what are they trying to create: Cylons or Terminators?
Why is it either or?
It’s sick is what it is. The brain thinks it’s being attacked.
Astute. No cortical, no executive function, just reactive.
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.
If you know.....
Vaguely unsettling.
In doing exorcisms and seeing objects move through the air on their own, a few neurons dancing does not surprise me.
Consciousness attaches to the physical body and gives it life. The physical body does not generate consciousness.
Ever butcher a snapping turtle and put the meat in a pan and it moves around on its own?
When the Firefly crew was bluffing their way into a hospital to steal a load of pharmaceutical medications.
“Consciousness attaches to the physical body and gives it life. “
There is no physical body. Just energy states.
I seriously have my doubts about the claims being made. For all we know humans located elsewhere have access to play both games, because that technology does exist. I guess I am a skeptic when it comes to being intorduced to any claim, for which I have no way of examining the evidence.
Consciousness has intrinsic energy.
“Consciousness has intrinsic energy.”
Consciousness is energy.
“Ever butcher a snapping turtle and put the meat in a pan and it moves around on its own?”
I can’t say that I have.
Singularity. For the sake of advancement, they dont think humans are smart enough to leave this planet. So, they hope to achieve that by combining man and machine.
The Borg is probably the model they are following.
This article kind of gives new meaning to, “I can kill you with my brain.”
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