Cyborg or Grobyc? You Be the Judge

Nanonerves
Human brains are amazing mental machines. As far as we know, there is nothing else quite like it in the universe. But we always wonder whether perhaps, we could build something just a bit better? Observe all the excitement and expenditure, over the past 60+ years, directed toward "artificial intelligence." What a disappointment that has been so far.

For all the different approaches that have been taken to achieve machine intelligence, most of the failures share the same feature: they rely on algorithmic digital silicon logic. This seems a bit odd, when the only proof of concept of conscious intelligence we know of -- the human brain -- utilises a distinctly and entirely different type of logic.

Here is an interesting twist on the conundrum: Why not design a neuronal scaffolding out of nanotubes made of germanium and silicon, then allow neurons to grow within the scaffolding? The neurons will naturally make networked connections with each other along the scaffold, but an added bonus may be the ability to interface the neurons with the silicon-germanium substrate of the scaffold itself.

Graduate students at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, led by Minrui Yu, have published an ACS Nano paper, "Semiconductor Nanomembrane Tubes: Three-Dimensional Confinement for Controlled Neurite Outgrowth," in which they show that they have been able to successfully coax nerve cell tendrils to grow through tiny tubes made of the semi-conductor materials silicon and germanium. While this ground-breaking research may not portend cyborgs or even human brains enmeshed with computer parts, it does open the door to the possibility of regenerating nerve cells damaged due to disease or injury.

Yu and his team, led by Justin Williams, a biomedical engineer, created tubes of varying sizes and shapes, small enough for a nerve cell to glam on to, but not so big that it could fit all the way inside. The tubes were then coated with nerve cells from mice and then watched to see how they would react. Instead of sitting idly, the nerve cells began to send tendrils through the tunnels, as if searching for a path to something or somewhere else. In some instances they actually followed the contours of the tubes, which means, in theory, that the nerves could be grown into structures. _PO

Indeed. The nerves could be grown into structures along prescribed pathways. But the possibility of a functional and powerful brain-machine interface is also being considered.

The hope of course, in this type of research, is that a way can be found to connect a computer of some sort to a group of nerve cells to reestablish communication that has been disrupted. The computer in this case could serve as a relay of sorts, allowing those who can no longer walk, for example, due to spinal injury or disease, regain their former abilities. In that regard, this particular research is even more revealing than it might at first seem, due to the fact that the tiny tubes that have been created, very closely resemble myelin, the outer insulating sheath that covers parts of normal nerve cells. _PO

This is the actual goal of the researchers in Wisconsin: to grow a nerve:computer interface. This is one approach to the brain:machine, or cyborg approach to extreme rehabilitation, or even augmentation for emergency workers or military personnel.

Another approach which is even more exotic than described above, would be to grow an intricate "nano-neural web" into the intact brain structure, to create millions of interfaces to all of the important centers of the brain. The idea behind such a grown nano-structure, besides providing an external brain:machine interface, would be to allow the conscious mind access to unconscious brain functions.

Emergent phenomena are likely to grow from the humble beginnings of such an approach. Growing a nano-neuro web interface inside an intact brain might be easier than growing one outside the brain, in some ways. The "growth front" of the web would merely need to follow pre-existing pathways, and could be assisted by internal and external feedbacks.

Alternatively, one could grow a scaffolding in vitro, according to the most advanced brain imaging, seed it with the appropriate proto-cells, and nourish it into an intricate, functioning, autopoietic neural:nano hybrid network. Any conceivable shape and combination of connections between artificially grown brain centers would be possible -- at any arbitrary and chosen level of complexity. Such an artificial -- but living -- brain could be provided with a rudimentary circulatory system, and implanted into the control structure of very sophisticated and highly connected machines and structures.

Cyborg or Grobyc? You be the judge.

Adapted from an article at Al Fin, the Next Level

Brain as Co-Processor: Grobyc Super-Computers?

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Computers lack a certain je ne sais quoi, which has prevented them from achieving the next level of quasi-intelligence. Humans, on the other hand, possess that ineffable quality in abundance, and some may be willing to share with computers -- to lift them up, closer to our level. Columbia University researchers are looking into the techniques of mind-sharing, with some interesting findings:

Most brain-computer interfaces are designed to help disabled people communicate or move around. A new project is using this type of interface to help computers perform tasks they can't manage on their own...[The] device, called C3Vision (cortically coupled computer vision), uses an electroencephalogram (EEG) cap to monitor brain activity as the person wearing it is shown about 10 images per second. Machine-learning algorithms trained to detect the neurological signals that signify interest in an image are used to analyze this brain activity. By monitoring these signals, the system rapidly ranks the images in terms of how interesting they appear to the viewer.

...At the speed at which it works, the conscious brain is unable to register a "hit." But the neurological visual pathways work much faster, says Sajda. The brain produces distinct electrical signals that can be detected and decoded by the 64 EEG electrodes within the cap. "It's on the edge of the subconscious," he says. _TechnologyReview

That is the key point, of course. By using the brain below the level of consciousness, the brain-computer hybrid -- or grobyc -- is able to function more quickly than the conscious mind, and on a higher level than a mere computer.

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Researchers have worked with grobycs using insect brains as controllers for several years. But it is only recently that the "mind-reading" technology has become available which allows the human subconscious -- much faster than the conscious -- to function as a computer controller.

This is the key difference between a human cyborg and a human grobyc. In the human cyborg, the human uses machine augmentation to perform tasks it could not otherwise perform. In the human grobyc, the machine uses the human brain as an adjunct to machine operation. The person's conscious mind (if any) need not be aware of the low level activity at all.

Doug Hofstadter has been writing about this slippery component of the human mind for over 30 years. It is central to the human mind's ability to think generatively and autonomously -- although outside input is crucial. It is the phenomenon of metaphorical stacking down to the embodied, non-verbal levels. It one of many critical features of mammalian general intelligence that AI researchers have ignored for over 60 years to their detriment.

Because the field of AI has neglected something so central to intelligence for so long, scientists are forced to use human brains as co-processors, and reduce human minds to grobyc status. Imagine: "My life as grobyc."

It certainly opens up entire new avenues for commerce and enterprise, to those forward thinkers looking to seize an under valued and under utilised resource to turn a profit. In the future, humans may sell the use of their subconscious minds to Google while they are sleeping, providing the mega-corporation with computational powers of search and subtle "slippery discrimination" its competition could only dream of.

More ominously, governments may use the subconscious minds of the masses to find better ways to control them en masse. This is an application to which an Idiocracy is ideally suited, unfortunately. Think of it as "following the ratings" or "following the polls", but on rocket fuel, and taken to the lowest common denominator.

Bonus: NYT article profiling "Portraits of the Mind", beautiful images of the brain
In the game of intelligence, the score is: Natural Evolution 1 AI Design 0