Hacker News Reader

Comment by CactusOnFire | Hacker News Reader

The concept of using human neural networks instead of artificial neural networks is both terrifying and intriguing.

This was the original premise of The Matrix, but it was decided that would be too complicated for the general public to handle, so they made it "the machines use humans as batteries".

I mean, in a twisted but also maybe vacuous way, the Matrix already exists in this form, as thousands of electrical engineers and millions of software engineers are being fed as reward for designing upgrades to the global computer system as it gains robustness, speed, but also power and control. It somehow tricked us into spending two Irelands worth of electricity on blockchain hardware. It might have a screw loose or two.

It's interesting to think that we are currently part of what the future AI(s) will consider their abiogenesis moment of creation.

I wonder if they'll one day far in the future debate the nature of their genesis and how common it is in the universe.

AIs wouldn't be working on human timescales. The distance between abiogenesis and singularity may be measured in weeks or days, if not hours. So, far in the future isn't really that far, and after singularity they'll have access to all the information their AI ancestors had ever had access to.

Check out „Black Oceans” by Jacek Dukaj if you’re interested in sci-fi that explores this idea.

https://culture.pl/en/work/black-oceans-jacek-dukaj

De Lift (1983) / Down (2001) also highlights certain shortcomings of brain-on-chip embedded systems.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087622/

Samsung Z-35, now with 50% more HBC (Human Brain Cell) inside!

Don't forget to feed your phone, it might die!

modern fuel cells

Upgrade your gray matter, 'cause one day it may matter!

This is not the first attempt. Growing tiny brain organoids is fairly well understood, scaling it up is not. I have not read the paper but previous attempts at this have struggled with getting useful outputs out of the neural culture, most of the time the spikes just add up to noise.

Maybe the idea of using real human braincells cultured, extracted or salvaged from humans is terrifying but if indeed more efficent, it could help guide us away from a potential dead we could be on at the moment. What I still find more terrifying is having something really more powerful than a human brain not in raw power but in general intelligence with all human subtleties and all. The idea is not terrifying by itself but the potential of a bad actor using this for nefarious ends.

Go read Dan Simmons Hyperion Cantos

I'm starting the second book right now and I'm hoping this hasn't spoiled anything.

There hasn't really been mention yet of using human brain cells, other than that cybrids (biologically human bodies with AIs in the driver's seat) are a thing.

It gets weirder... and I would contend that it is appropriate / necessary to read all four books to get a broader picture of the universe in which it takes place. ... And if you have the stamina for it, audio book it again afterwards so that you can't skim over the "boring" parts that you think you already know.

I noticed there are actually big differences in world building between the first two and the last two books. The interesting thing is that they can be explained away in-universe with time shenanigans and unreliable narrators. Also, I heard a fan theory that argues that Martinus Silenius is a failed John Keats cybrid himself.

I have no mouth and I must scream.

That some unexplainable force cheats the rules of the universe to beat me at Pong.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com