When you think about it, the brain is really nothing
more than a collection of electrical signals. If we
can learn to catalogue those then, in theory, you
can upload someone’s mind onto a computer,
allowing them to live forever as a digital form of
consciousness, just like in the Johnny Depp
film Transcendence.

But it’s not just science fiction. Sure, scientists
aren’t anywhere near close to achieving such feat
with humans (and even if they could, the ethics
would be pretty fraught), but now an international
team of researchers have managed to do just that
with the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans .
C. elegans is a little nematodes that have been
extensively studied by scientists - we know all of
their genes and their nervous system has been
analysed many times.

Now a collective called the OpenWorm project has
mapped all the connections between the worm’s
302 neurons and managed to simulate them in
software, as Marissa Fessenden reports for the
Smithsonian.

The ultimate goal of the project is to completely
replicate C. elegans as a virtual organism, but for
now, they’ve only managed to simulate its brain,
and they’ve now uploaded that into a simple Lego
robot.

This Lego robot has all the equivalent limited
body parts that C. elegans has - a sonar sensor
that acts as a nose, and motors that replace its
motor neurons on each side of its body.
Amazingly, without any instruction being
programmed into the robot, the C. elegans brain
upload controlled and move the Lego robot.

Lucy Black writes for I Programmer :
"It is claimed that the robot behaved in ways that
are similar to observed C. elegans. Stimulation of
the nose stopped forward motion. Touching the
anterior and posterior touch sensors made the
robot move forward and back accordingly.
Stimulating the food sensor made the robot move
forward."

This video of the Lego-worm-robot was released
by Timothy Busbice, a founder of OpenWorm,
showing it moving, stopping and then travelling
backwards.

Of course, the brain simulation still isn’t exact -
for one, the researchers had to simplify the
process that triggers an artificial neuron to fire.
But the fact that this robot can move, stop before
it bumps into something and reverse using
nothing more than a network of connections that
mimic a worm’s brain, is pretty incredible.

Scientists are now working out how to map all the
connections in the human brain - something
called the connectome. Even if we’re not
uploading our brains into computers, just being
able to simulate a human brain would help to
revolutionise artificial intelligence and computers.
And if we could one day get to the point where we
can somehow get our minds to escape the
vulnerable fleshy meat sacks that currently house
them, the opportunities would, quite literally, be
mind-blowing.

http://www.sciencealert.com/watch-scientists-have-put-a-worm-s-brain-into-a-lego-robot-s-body-and-it-works

Nmeri17:
to what end?? I find this saddening and disgusting. human beings trying to outdo God. to what end I ask again??

the end is nigh!!

I think you're looking at it from a different angle. No matter what scientists do, they can never outdo God. They're merely modifying what He has already created.

This new discovery can help humanity in a lotta ways, mate.

Frankenstein:


This new discovery can help humanity in a lotta ways, mate.

it will actually lead humanity to self destruction. I'm not being pessimistic but imagine all the negative things that could be achieved when this process is being successfully repeated on human beings. as if cloning is not bad enough -__-

Nmeri17:


it will actually lead humanity to self destruction. I'm not being pessimistic but imagine all the negative things that could be achieved when this process is being successfully repeated on human beings. as if cloning is not bad enough -__-

Think about the positive aspect...a major advancement in Neuroscience. Biological bots that don't need instructions can help humanity in industries, agriculture and space exploration.

Frankenstein:
Think about the positive aspect...a major advancement in Neuroscience. Biological bots that don't need instructions can help humanity in industries, agriculture and space exploration.

bro, honestly I have no intentions of arguing with yu. u can stay optimistic all u want. but perhaps if yu were a bit realistic, you'd see things from my perspective and appreciate my point of view

do have a nice day. duty calls