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+--- Thread: Article Neuroscientist Kenneth Kosik on whether lab-grown brains will achieve consciousness (/thread-16198.html)
Neuroscientist Kenneth Kosik on whether lab-grown brains will achieve consciousness - C C - Jul 21, 2024
https://www.livescience.com/health/neuroscience/we-can-t-answer-these-questions-neuroscientist-kenneth-kosik-on-whether-lab-grown-brains-will-achieve-consciousness
INTRO: Kenneth Kosik, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, recently explored that possibility in a perspective article. Live Science spoke with Kosik about how brain organoids are made, how similar they are to human brains and why he believes that brain organoid consciousness is not likely anytime soon.
(EXCERPT) . . . EC: You spoke about the fact that organoids have shown some capacity to encode information, but they don't have the experience to do this in the first place. What would happen if, hypothetically, a human brain organoid was transplanted into an animal? Could it then achieve consciousness?
KK: Let's break that down. Before it is transplanted into an animal, some people would say the animal already has consciousness and some people would say [it does] not. So, right away, we get into this difficulty about where in the animal kingdom does consciousness begin? So, let's reframe the question. If you then took an animal, which may or may not have some degree of consciousness, and you transplant in a human organoid, would you confer consciousness on that animal or would you enhance consciousness, or would you even get something that resembled human consciousness in the animal? I don't know the answer to any of those questions... (MORE - details)
RE: Neuroscientist Kenneth Kosik on whether lab-grown brains will achieve consciousness - Zinjanthropos - Jul 21, 2024
A lot of ifs. Understand the importance of stem cell research but looking for consciousness in mini brains, which aren’t really brains, seems like a diversion a mad scientist might pursue.
RE: Neuroscientist Kenneth Kosik on whether lab-grown brains will achieve consciousness - Magical Realist - Jul 22, 2024
A brain without a bodily experience would be like a TV without a signal. There would be no perceptions or physical movement for it to construct and objectify a spatial/temporal world with. And being small it would be at about the level of a mouse. So imo the prospect of anything like a human consciousness wouldn't be good.