Human brain organoid bioprocessors now available to rent for $500 per month

Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale

Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus

I am one of co-founders of this company. Many of the questions asked here are answered in our recent publication: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/artificial-intelligence...

I will be happy to try to answer any other questions!

Ethical objections in this thread are a red herring.

Our brains are not that different than other primates' brains. We do abhorrent things to other primates that __demonstrably__ have similar experiential qualia as humans, mostly for the benefit of our species. But somehow objectioners are losing their marbles over a human cell cluster that has no more than a few thousand constituent cells.

The computational ability of human brains is an unintentional happenstance of billions of years of random-walk evolution; there's no reason to believe that we can't make systems that are even more efficient with intentional design. If these organoids get us there, I'm all for them.

The best part of the article for me is right at the top.

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Tom's Hardware was one affiliate link away from bumping the cyberpunk index of this article to 11.

Putting the ethical dilemmas aside, I'd like to know how such bioprocessors could possibly have:

>million times greater power efficiency when compared to digital processors

if bioprocessors have to support("run" the metabolism) all their organelles, including parts that are not at all involved in the signal processing, which is I suppose >99% of the cell, compared to digital processors that we literally built with the sole purpose of performing such operations and have logical gates close in size to the single layer of atoms already? What did we miss in the design?

I'm not sure "The Matrix" was meant to be a How-To Manual... because this sure feels like the first step to humans in a tube.

So... where exactly do the neurons come from? Are these donated neurons or grown in a lab from samples?

This seems... questionable at best. Not really comfortable with the idea of this...

I was once contacted by FinalSpark where they offered free early remote access to use their biocomputing platform. The platform is accessible remotely and allows experiments on neurospheres made from living cells, sitting in an incubator, in their lab, in Vevey, Switzerland. A neurosphere is a round structure build out of approximately 10’000 neurons, connected to electrodes in different places. The platform uses python scripts to communicate with the neuron allowing for various functionalities, such as: Stimulate living neurons, Read data from neurons, Log all the data in a database, and Display graphically the results of experiments for further analysis.

I was too busy to come up with a clear project idea that could beat alreadty existing stuff such as neurons playing Doom [0] (not related to FinalSpark). Still waiting for someone to show something cool using this platform.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEXefdbQDjw

@finalspark: This was inevitable, please don't read this as anything other than constructive criticism; I am sure you are aware of the rat cells flying F-22 sim's in unlandable weather a decade+ ago.

Can branding hide consciousness? Hopefully not, and if not, can your group please trail blaze a ethical path if it decides it encountered it? I realize this is a "use less" or "don't do that at all" scenario, and other actors are going to enslave larger brains if they can grow them.

My intuition is larger billion+^ structures are long off, but that might not be the case. It's possible a oscillating pressure vessel with the right conditions (robust input/output feedback) may negate the need for a conventional circulatory system.

[2020] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22087410

This is pretty cool. Feel somewhat dystopic though I suppose that's inevitable. I wonder how easy it will be to develop and scale this technology, given that it's housing organic entities with life support systems.

Recommended reading (it's a science fiction piece but still relevant): https://qntm.org/mmacevedo

It's like you guys have never even heard of 'body on a chip' https://school.wakehealth.edu/research/institutes-and-center....

It always amuses me whenever a biology story here gets the tech crowd quivering, when they would normally be crowing gleefully about ASI and human obsolescence.

A brain is more energy efficient than a chip, but how a couple of cells connected to wires has more economic sense than a chip with gallizions of transistors?

But you can hire a human with a brain for less?

This falls squarely into the "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they never stopped to consider whether they should" category.

There are so many unknowns with potentially horrifying answers.

We don't know what generates human consciousness. But we know the brain is a key part of it. At what point does a bunch of lab grown human neurons become conscious? Can it become conscious outside of a body? What would that experience be like if a lab grown brain used as a computer developed consciousness? And what would happen to that consciousness?

The potential energy savings aren't worth risking the potential horror.

Thought Emporium on YouTube made a few videos utilizing organoid bio processors but iirc their neuron source is pig not human.

https://youtu.be/bEXefdbQDjw?si=-YVEmZhSrkgBj3I9

This doesn't much bother me, but I also find it pointless. These will not be reproducible or easily manufactured. Maybe good for neuroscience experiments?

Now, chimeric animals made with addition of human stem cells, that would have significant ethical problems.

What can you run on it? How far away are we from this being able to train, say, an LLM?

I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream.

Seriously, the hubris is stunning.

What’s the failure mode look like on this. Half your neurons died?

I can see how this would be useful for research, but on the other hand it feels like a step towards the dystopian servitors[0] from Warhammer 40k.

[0] "robots" made from criminals/clones since AI is banned

It appears the cyberpunk universe has arrived, and not in the way I expected.

The first thing I did was check if the publication date was April 1. I'm not entirely sure I believe this article. However, if it's satire, it's impossible to be sure. I guess it's real, and the world has gotten weirder.

This article made me realize I am officially old. I find it difficult to believe I could ever classify this within my overton window before I die.

Good luck to the next generation and your human brain slave computers, I'm 42, I'll be out of your way soon.

"Organic computing at a fraction of the cost of silicon? It's a no-brainer!"

We already found a way to generate porn. Can we please stop now?

I’m gonna throw up.

All I want to know is how one of these can be used to generate more ad revenue.

Sometimes the Torment Nexis is allegorical. Sometimes they build the actual thing...

Company is called FinalSpark. Sounds like an unethical final solution for AI.