The_Walrus wrote:
goldfish21 wrote:
Not sure if impressive or ridiculous.
Like, should we be making fake brains? Or
should we just actually look after people and the environment they depend on for survival and the perpetuation of our species?
All sorts of research doesn't immediately seem like it will improve people's lives, but eventually leads to something that does.
It's not hard to imagine this sort of research leading to treatments for dementia or brain injuries, which would undoubtedly "look after people".
This research is being performed by Cortical Labs - a private research laboratory based in Australia. The total R&D budget of the government of Australia is 12.6bn AUD (£6.5bn/8.25bn USD/11.25bn CAD/€7.6bn), which is about 2% of government spending. So even if Cortical Labs is getting a grant worth 100% of Australia's public R&D, Australia is spending 98% of its tax takings on other things. But realistically the cost is probably only about $20m, financed by a combination of government, non-profits, and investors, out of a GDP of AU$2.3trn.
The most likely use for this would be like those heart cells on a chip years ago. The most accurate way of knowing if something is toxic to brain cells in general, is to test them on brain cells. For practical and ethical reasons, I don't anticipate these being used for other things as brain cells without the constraint of having to fit a specific cranium aren't really that much different for use in computers.
That won't completely solve the problem of medications causing issues with the brain, but it would cut down a lot on the things that are just inherently toxic as opposed to the things like Adderall that can just damage specific cells. (From what I understand, Adderall can short circuit a key safety valve, it's unclear to me at what dosage that becomes a concern)