Are we sure that's not just a weirdly angled picture of a chihuahua or muffin?

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

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This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
Are we sure that's not just a weirdly angled picture of a chihuahua or muffin?

It has no mouth and it must scream
Eldritch horrors beyond my comprehension
Simply put, to respond to light stimuli is not an unequivocal sign of consciousness.
No, Fredoric. They won't understand and won't click through. Use "coaxed" like the AI says, we don't need to act like we are reputable, we are reputable well established already / the Boss at "the west lane mag independent" or something
This could be exactly the scientific breakthrough we needed. Imagine a future where we all have one of these and it watches ads on your behalf. It can't close its eyes. It can't look away. it's the perfect audience!
Imagine reincarnating into that
Ah yes, the Torment Nexus.
Looks like the Horrors in the Dark will be existential tonight folks!
I too look forward to horrors beyond human comprehensions!
A horror movie where you suddenly gain consciousness just to realize you’re a light-sensitive brain blob.
It's an honest job.
Tech venture capitalists for some reason:

Too much blobs with eyes in the world
Researchers note that it was immediately given a Disney+Hulu trial subscription.
Horrific state of consciousness? They're probably having the best time of any of us
if bright then pulse high
A riveting existence!
Light definitely elevates my mood
It's just like me fr fr
The comments here show something that the majority of people have no clue how science and research works. We would have been decades closer to even greater research with stem cells if it wasn’t for religious non-sense.
The next thing they form is a rudimentary finger for doom scrolling.
Oh to be a blob with not a care in the world.
I have no mouth and I must scream.
We out here building torment nexes faster than the SciFi writers can keep up.
Everybody wants science to cure cancer, but the moment someone does foundational research they lose their fuckin minds.
Guys, the alternative is cutting up mice and pigs.
Yeah, this is pretty far below the level of a mouse even, typically
perhaps some people have eyes in their brains and just don't know it.
does this mean that when they close their eyes the darkness they see is really the inside of their skull?
Of course. And the voice inside their heads is another mouth that developed and wants to be friends.
perhaps some people have eyes in their brains and just don't know it.
Your eyes technically are part of your brain.
But it's certainly not unheard of. Parietal eyes have existed for a good while now.
What's up with your link?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parietal_eye
Spoiler
It's just like a lizard/fish thing. No mammals.
Ah thanks!
Hurry up, make ads for that thing.
More qualified for the White House than anyone working there today.
Hey now, don't be rude. There are still some really good groundskeepers working there.
Unless you go for Cartesian dualist theories about immaterial souls, consciousness of the sort we experience is an artefact of the structure of our brains and nervous systems, which are large in scale and complex. A small blob of human-derived brain tissue is not going to have consciousness, let alone self-awareness and a sense of horror at its predicament, any more than a 555 timer is capable of playing DOOM by virtue of being made of silicon.
I don't think we can say that about consciousness for sure, but I agree with your broader point that it doesn't have self-awareness or a sense of horror at its predicament.
This could actually host a very interesting rudimentary form of consciousness that is theorized by some theories of consciousness, especially idealist models like panpsychism or analytic idealism (though I do admit that analytic idealism would phrase it in terms of having a mental state instead of being conscious).
There's also the question of why would it experience horror? It's not exactly in pain, and they way they make the eyes grow is just to add the hormone signal that makes eyes grow when developing.
So from its perspective, it just got told to make eyes, so it has rudimentary eyes now. Hardly the most horrifying existence.
I have no mouth and I must scream, 4k remake