According to Johns Hopkins University researchers, a “bio-computer” powered by human brain cells could be created during our lifetime. Yes, astonishing, now a possibility, future computers powered by human brain cells. They predict that such technology will vastly improve the capabilities of modern computers and open up new fields of study. The work is being led by Thomas Hartung, a professor of environmental health sciences at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Whiting School of Engineering. “Computing and artificial intelligence have been driving the technology revolution but they are reaching a ceiling,” he said. In order to surpass our current technical limitations, “bio-computing is an enormous effort of compacting processing power and enhancing its efficiency.” Without using human or animal testing, scientists have been studying kidneys, lungs, and other organs for almost 20 years using microscopic organoids, lab-made tissue that resembles fully grown organs. In more recent years, Johns Hopkins researchers Hartung and others have been experimenting with brain organoids, spheres the size of a pen-dot that include neurons and other components that show promise for sustaining fundamental mental processes like learning and memory.
This allows for more study into how the human brain functions, according to Hartung. “Because you can start gaming the system and doing things that are morally wrong to do with human brains,” the speaker explains. In 2012, Hartung used cells from human skin samples that had been reprogrammed into an embryonic stem cell-like condition to start growing and assembling brain cells into functioning organoids. Each organoid has 50,000 cells, or roughly the same number as the nervous system of a fruit fly. He currently anticipates developing a futuristic computer with such brain organoids. In 2012, Hartung used cells from human skin samples that had been reprogrammed into an embryonic stem cell-like condition to start growing and assembling brain cells into functioning organoids. Each organoid has 50,000 cells, or roughly the same number as the nervous system of a fruit fly. He currently anticipates developing a futuristic computer with such brain organoids.
In the coming ten years, computers powered by this “biological hardware” might start to reduce the unsustainable energy demands of supercomputing, according to Hartung. Human brains are significantly more capable of forming complicated logical judgments, such as differentiating a dog from a cat, even though computers perform computations involving numbers and data more quickly than they do. Modern computers still cannot compete with the brain, according to Hartung. “The newest supercomputer in Kentucky, called Frontier, costs $600 million and occupies 6,800 square feet. It didn’t surpass the processing power of a single human brain until June of last year, but it did so while using a million times more energy.” According to Hartung, it may take decades before organoid intelligence can power a system with the intellect of a mouse. Yet he envisions a future in which biocomputers enable higher computing speed, processing power, data efficiency, and storage capacity by increasing the generation of brain organoids and teaching them with artificial intelligence. Until we succeed in creating something akin to any kind of computer, it will take decades, according to Hartung. But it will be much harder if we don’t start developing financial programs for this. The investigations’ co-leader, Lena Smirnova, an assistant professor of environmental health and engineering at Johns Hopkins University, believes that organoid intelligence could also transform drug testing research for neurodevelopmental disorders and neurodegeneration.
We want to contrast the brain organoids from donors who are usually developed with those from donors who have autism, said Smirnova. “The biological computing tools we are developing are the same tools that will allow us to understand changes in neuronal networks specific for autism, without having to use animals or access patients, so we can understand the underlying mechanisms of why patients have these cognition issues and impairments.” A wide group of scientists, bioethicists, and members of the public have been integrated into the team to evaluate the ethical ramifications of working with organoid intelligence.Brian S. Caffo, David H. Gracias, Qi Huang, Itzy E. Morales Pantoja, Bohao Tang, Timothy DHarris, Erik C. Johnson, Jeffrey Kahn, Barton L. Paulhamus, Jesse Plotkin, Alexander S. Szalay, Joshua T. Vogelstein, and Paul F. Worley were among the Johns Hopkins authors. Alysson R. Muotri of the University of California, San Diego; Brett J. Kagan of Cortical Laboratories; and Jens C. Schwamborn of the University of Luxembourg were additional authors.
Conclusion
We are a bit skeptical, Could this, future computers powered by Human Brain Cells be the start of Terminator-human war problem? The age where human brain cells are powering future computers can be likened to be the case of the sci-fi movie terminator. However, the research has assured that we have no cause for alarm. let us know your thought in the comment section below.
