this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2025
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[–] Sendpicsofsandwiches@sh.itjust.works 50 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Oh good! Technological horrors beyond my comprehension

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 51 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

They're not mini human brains though. They're little clusters of cells. The BBC's headline is deliberately (and irresponsibly) provocative and misleading.

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago (2 children)
[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 13 points 2 months ago

Not really. Brain cells, but not in a brain.

[–] Beacon@fedia.io 12 points 2 months ago (2 children)

A human brain isn't just a lump of brain cells, it's an exquisitely intricate assemblage of brain cells in very precisely organized networks that perform very specific functions. Without the organization, the same number of brain cells are not a brain

[–] Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone 10 points 2 months ago (2 children)

We flat out do not understand consciousness. There was a case of a guy living a normal life while missing 90% of his brain. Who knows how many undocumented cases there are or what the limits are? Until we understand whether or not we’re creating consciousness and the nature of it, we shouldn’t be fucking around with anything that could wind up being conscious in any capacity that exists only as a part of a machine.

[–] daq@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Why not? I think it's only a concern if the consciousness is aware of alternatives. Plenty of conscious creatures live an awesome life while comprehending maybe 5% of wtf is going on around them.

Most people don't wake up every day depressed that they weren't born in the future with awesome tech around them. Would be nice, but hardly an existential crisis imo.

[–] RogueBanana@piefed.zip 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Bruh that's like saying abuse is fine if they never see the light. It's still conscious that WILL be used like a slave in our capitalistic hell scape.

[–] daq@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Not really. A child is perfectly happy forever playing a basic game like arranging something by size, color, etc., but to a fully developed adult that is boring at best and torture if they were forced to do it.

[–] RogueBanana@piefed.zip 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

A child can be abused and does not comprehend what is happening to then but that doesn't make it ok. It's not the task I am worried about but how it will be treated. Are there any guarantees that a conscious will never be developed? If it does happen then what next?

[–] daq@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 months ago

We'll cross that bridge when we get there. Ai fears have been around for decades and we're still many years, if not decades from any real Ai. Pattern recognition and ML we have now are incredibly useful for specific tasks though, so dismissing whole tech based on theoretical fears seems very conservative.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago

No one was leading a normal life missing 90% of their brain.

[–] RogueBanana@piefed.zip 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I would call a mobile a mini pc even if the architecture is different. Let's not be pedantic about it.

[–] Beacon@fedia.io 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's not pedantic, your analogy isn't even close. The analogy would be if you had a pile of unconnected transistors

[–] RogueBanana@piefed.zip 2 points 2 months ago

That is exactly being pedantic. Nobody is concerned about the state right now but the end goal here. It is a fully functional brain that can be on par with the real counterpart. If you support this research, do you also support psycho pass kinda shit as well? Because that's exactly where this is going.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 months ago

What the fuck has happened to the BBC? Last week they had huge headlines about a "cure" for Huntington's disease which was nothing but hyping a drug company press release that was no where near reality.

[–] Archangel1313@lemmy.ca 21 points 2 months ago (3 children)

This is what the Matrix should have been about.

[–] clucose@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Finally we can live in the 90s again.

[–] Archangel1313@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago

Arguably, the best decade we had.

[–] billwashere@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Fucking batteries?!?! This makes so much more sense.

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

Allegedly it was originally about basically this, but they dumbed it down to be about batteries for fear of audiences of the time not understanding.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 1 points 2 months ago

Maybe they needed more energy and manipulate the brain cells to grow humans.

[–] swab148@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 2 months ago

Can you not?

[–] Erasmus@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago

For years now I’ve told everyone that the future was gonna be more like 40k and less like Star Trek.

Servitors here we come!!

[–] tunetardis@piefed.ca 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I read somewhere that when they were envisioning the storyline for The Matrix, the original idea was supposed to be that human grey matter powered it in a computational sense. This kind of tracks, given the brain can perform outstanding feats running at a measly 20 watts or whatever it is, but somehow the story got distorted into its eventual form in which the human body is acting as a grossly inefficient battery.

[–] dev_null@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 months ago

And it would explain why Neo is able to modify the Matrix: it's partly running inside his head.

But no, it's an urban legend, it was supposed to be batteries from the first draft.

[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago (3 children)
[–] ArgentRaven@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

If it's not now, it will be in a few years. I can't wait for the shocking reveal in 10 years that we've been using fully grown brains in everything.

[–] _cryptagion@anarchist.nexus 1 points 2 weeks ago

I suppose it could be if you consider abortion as murder. but there's nowhere near enough neurons here to be anything close to conscious.

[–] spittingimage@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

In the same way you've enslaved your liver and lungs, sure.

[–] SlartyBartFast@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I always knew it would end with this

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Wait until you guys find out where hamburgers and chicken wings come from.

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

mini human brains grown in a lab?

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 1 points 2 weeks ago

It's mini human brains grown in a lab all the way down!

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Isn't this how alita got her brain?

[–] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

mini brain, mega eyes

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Future Generations, if there are any, will refer to this as the beginning of the end.

[–] SkabySkalywag@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Omnissiah by praised, a new servitors is here!