Are we sure that’s not just a weirdly angled picture of a chihuahua or muffin?
This is what you get with some further coaxing.
this guy coaxes
I have no mouth but I must scream.
It has no mouth and it must scream
it can eat and grow though
Simply put, to respond to light stimuli is not an unequivocal sign of consciousness.
Eldritch horrors beyond my comprehension
Everybody wants science to cure cancer, but the moment someone does foundational research they lose their fuckin minds.
Guys, the alternative is cutting up mice and pigs.Yeah, this is pretty far below the level of a mouse even, typically
All I want science to cure is billionaires, we’ll take it from there. Concentrations of wealth that enable making brains grow eyes are a bug, not feature. Ever read “Whitey’s on the Moon”?
That problem is very much one that’s beyond the domain of scientists. That’s like saying “All I want literature to do is decipher the genetic basis of cancer”. Trust me, if science were able to cure billionaires, it would.
Science gave us the guillotine, I choose to hold out hope. Pinpointing and publishing where all the wealth’s being concentrated would be an excellent Science Task
Science didn’t give us the guillotine, no matter which scientific method or forbear you’re using to determine scientific nature. At best, engineering gave us the guillotine, but I rather doubt there was any actual engineering design going on when they first made the Halifax Gibbet, except insofar as “I need a simpler and more consistent way to lazily kill petty criminals” was “defining a need”.
Iam not sspecifically talking about this example and I am not trying to imply this tissue has any sort of consciousness but if “foundational research” means “man made horrors beyond my comprehension” maybe we need to find another way, and if we cannot, maybe we just shouldn’t torture conscious beings in the name of science and progress.
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Nature is full of horrors beyond your comprehension. If you want to make that less so, manmade horrors are the only way to do it.
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This is by no means torture, quite the opposite in fact. Neurons are little prediction machines, and if you don’t give them stimuli, they either make their own of degrade. Particularly in small clumps of cells like this, you can’t be sure of whether they’re conscious, but if they are, they’re having an amazing time learning about the light signals.
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That touches upon the actual issue here. We dont know if they’re conscious. We don’t have a solid idea of what consciousness is, where it comes from, what it consists of, or where the line is drawn. That’s the sort of knowledge you only get by performing these sorts of experiments.
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Tech venture capitalists for some reason:
This could be exactly the scientific breakthrough we needed. Imagine a future where we all have one of these and it watches ads on your behalf. It can’t close its eyes. It can’t look away. it’s the perfect audience!
I have no mouth and I must scream.
I’m sure they can work out a mouth next
Why?
So it can scream
Needs vocal cords and lungs for that.
Alright well then name your short story ‘I have no vocal cords or lungs and I must scream’
The comments here show something that the majority of people have no clue how science and research works. We would have been decades closer to even greater research with stem cells if it wasn’t for religious non-sense.
I have no mouth and I must scream, 4k remake
The next thing they form is a rudimentary finger for doom scrolling.
This is how I feel on Sundays.
Me most mornings.
Ah yes, the Torment Nexus.
Looks like the Horrors in the Dark will be existential tonight folks!
I too look forward to horrors beyond human comprehensions!
A horror movie where you suddenly gain consciousness just to realize you’re a light-sensitive brain blob.
It’s an honest job.
