You Can Now Rent a Flesh Computer Grown In a British Lab (sciencealert.com) 34
alternative_right shares a report from ScienceAlert: The world's first commercial hybrid of silicon circuitry and human brain cells will soon be available for rent. Marketed for its vast potential in medical research, the biological machine, grown inside a British laboratory, builds on the Pong-playing prototype, DishBrain. Each CL1 computer is formed of 800,000 neurons grown across a silicon chip, and their life-support system. While it can't yet match the mind-blowing capabilities of today's most powerful computers, the system has one very significant advantage: it only consumes a fraction of the energy of comparable technologies.
AI centers now consume countries' worth of energy, whereas a rack of CL1 machines only uses 1,000 watts and is naturally capable of adapting and learning in real time. [...] When neuroscientist Brett Kagan and colleagues pitted their creation against equivalent levels of machine learning algorithms, the cell culture systems outperformed them. Users can send code directly into the synthetically supported system of neurons, which is capable of responding to electrical signals almost instantly. These signals act as bits of information that can be read and acted on by the cells. But perhaps the greatest potential for this biological and synthetic hybrid is as an experimental tool for learning more about our own brains and their abilities, from neuroscience to creativity. The first CL1 units will reportedly ship soon for $35,000 each. Remote access can apparently be rented for $300 per week.
AI centers now consume countries' worth of energy, whereas a rack of CL1 machines only uses 1,000 watts and is naturally capable of adapting and learning in real time. [...] When neuroscientist Brett Kagan and colleagues pitted their creation against equivalent levels of machine learning algorithms, the cell culture systems outperformed them. Users can send code directly into the synthetically supported system of neurons, which is capable of responding to electrical signals almost instantly. These signals act as bits of information that can be read and acted on by the cells. But perhaps the greatest potential for this biological and synthetic hybrid is as an experimental tool for learning more about our own brains and their abilities, from neuroscience to creativity. The first CL1 units will reportedly ship soon for $35,000 each. Remote access can apparently be rented for $300 per week.
Robobrains (Score:2)
Re: Robobrains (Score:2)
Or is this going to be more like the Borg from Star Trek?
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I think it will be more along the lines of Bubblegum Crisis.
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positive transhumanism supports this view, where humanity evolves through technology while keeping choice, diversity, and selfhood. This is much closer to Ghost in the Shell, where
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How long until we get the interfaces, Mother?
Flesh Computer (Score:2)
What's her name?
I had to read the headline four times.
The first time I read "flesh computer" and thought,
that has to be "flash computer...what's that?"
Then it was "fresh computer".
Finally came back to "flesh computer".
When I got to the Britain part, my first thought was:
Didn't the Japanese already do this?
In all seriousness: there have ready been
with human neurons on them that you can buy.
And now having dispensed with the headline,
I will go read TFS and see what the heck this is.
Old News / dupe? (Score:3)
I read about a chip with human neurons on it,
already for sale, previously. Maybe 6 weeks
or a couple months ago? They grew the neurons
from stem cells, I think. One problem with the chip
is that the wetware doesn't live indefinitely.
The chip has a definite lifetime.
And it wasn't a very long time.
Is this the same story? /. so perhaps this is a dupe?
I imagine I must have read the original story
here in
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yes, it is the same story, yes it is a dupe.
https://science.slashdot.org/s... [slashdot.org]
Re: What does it taste like BBQed? (Score:2)
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Really close to bone marrow... .mmmmmmm
From the UK: home of nvCJD (Score:2)
Friends don't let friends eat British brains.
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How long before this is on the cloud? (Score:2)
Back to the 40s (Score:2)
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The original computers were human [nasa.gov].
In 1757, a team of women were computing (and were called computers) for data about Haley's Comet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
NASA continued that.
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Thanks (Score:2)
I've already got one. In my skull.
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I've already got one. In my skull.
Good to know, if I need a spare I'll just crack that open.
Perfect timing... (Score:2)
crypto mining? (Score:2)
Can it compute hashes in parallel? Asking for a friend.
Mind? Consciousness? (Score:2)
I think we ought to figure out whether these things have a mind and are conscious. This could have dire implications for the future of this product. It's innovative, yes. But can we conscienably use these for our own purposes? What if they *are* conscious? Then what?
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Bullshit (Score:3)
This is the kind of sensationalist nonsense.
Neurons are not as efficient as silicon in terms of computation. The power parameters reported here are the power requirements for running an incubator and 4% CO2. This is the cost of life support as available in the any standard cell culture in thousands of biology labs all over the world. The energy for computation comes from glucose provided in cell culture medium to the cells, which is more energetically much more expensive than electricity. Cells have a maximal efficiency of about 40% in extracting this.
Also, neurons will die in culture. They will also change in culture. They have to be replaced periodically and the underlying silicon will have to be retrained again for performing computations.
If this is true, (Score:2)
I'm imagining a body horror monstrosity, like David Cronenberg meets Sepultura's Arise album.
I can just see me using one of these flesh computers, and whatever interface I'm using to interact with it will pop up with the words "kill me"
ok, but (Score:2)
how does this differ from Fiverr?
Imagine a... (Score:1)
Absolutely Useless (Score:2)
Name one thing you would do to a flesh computer. You can't!