Show Notes
This episode was originally reported on our podcast Reflector. You can hear this story and many more by visiting us here
What if the next great leap in computing wasn't made of silicon — but of living human brain cells? Reporter Greg Warner takes us inside the lab of Hon Weng Chong, an Australian computer engineer who has built a biological computer: a device that houses actual human neurons in a petri dish, teaches them to play Pong using reward and punishment, and is now being sold to medical researchers, crypto gamers, and roboticists with very big dreams. Along the way, Andy and Greg dig into what these cells might actually feel, why the path to artificial general intelligence might run through a robot's skin rather than its brain, and what it would mean to one day stick a chip of pre-programmed neurons back into a human head. It's weird, it's a little smelly, and it might be the future.
THIS EPISODE FEATURES:
Hon Weng Chong - CEO and founder of Cortical Labs
Dr. Minas Liarokapis - CEO/CTO of Acumino Inc., Director of the New Dexterity Research Group
LINKS:
Cortical Labs
Acumino
Dishbrain Paper - In vitro neurons learn and exhibit sentience when embodied in a simulated game-world
CREDITS:
This episode was reported and produced by Greg Warner, Andy Mills, Simon Adler, and Matthew Boll
Music for this episode was composed by Cobey Bienert and Peter Lalish
Reflector artwork by Jacob Boll Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More from The Last Invention
Everyone agrees that street homelessness is a problem to solve. But that’s where the agreement ends. Today, we explore the two camps that think they’ve found an answer — one that argues for more resources and the other that argues for more rule of law.
Homelessness today looks very different than it did in the 1980s, when American cities first woke up to this crisis. Today, we explore the legal battles that turned survival outside into a constitutional question.
What we call “homelessness” is a relatively modern phenomenon. Today, we tell the story of its emergence and why, in the 1980s, one woman fought so fervently for her right to live on a New York City street corner.
Today we are sharing with you the first episode of a new series we’ve made here at Longview, called Book Keeper.
In this episode we talk with Daniel Alejandro Moreno-Gama, the man who was recently arrested and charged with attempting to kill Sam Altman. Several months before the attack, our team contacted a young man posting on Discord under the handle "Butlerian Jihadist," who referenced “Luigi-ing tech CEOs” to our producer. He agreed to an interview and to answer questions about his background and how he came to believe that AGI must be stopped for humanity to survive.