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Episode Description
This episode was originally reported on our podcast Reflector. You can hear this story and many more by visiting us here
What if the next great leap in computing wasn't made of silicon — but of living human brain cells? Reporter Greg Warner takes us inside the lab of Hon Weng Chong, an Australian computer engineer who has built a biological computer: a device that houses actual human neurons in a petri dish, teaches them to play Pong using reward and punishment, and is now being sold to medical researchers, crypto gamers, and roboticists with very big dreams. Along the way, Andy and Greg dig into what these cells might actually feel, why the path to artificial general intelligence might run through a robot's skin rather than its brain, and what it would mean to one day stick a chip of pre-programmed neurons back into a human head. It's weird, it's a little smelly, and it might be the future.
THIS EPISODE FEATURES:
Hon Weng Chong - CEO and founder of Cortical Labs
Dr. Minas Liarokapis - CEO/CTO of Acumino Inc., Director of the New Dexterity Research Group
LINKS:
Dishbrain Paper - In vitro neurons learn and exhibit sentience when embodied in a simulated game-world
CREDITS:
This episode was reported and produced by Greg Warner, Andy Mills, Simon Adler, and Matthew Boll
Music for this episode was composed by Cobey Bienert and Peter Lalish
Reflector artwork by Jacob Boll
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