I wondered if anyone had written about the ethics of this type of research, they have. It's super long so I've not finished it yet, but it generally seems the standard scientific assessment is that current organoids very likely lack the organization needed for "sentience", but, that methods for detecting subjective experience in organoids are not at all well established.
Terrifying. I just don't see how this doesn't inevitably lead to brain-scale organoids. The ethics of it seem impossible. Given how we treat non-human animals this reminds me of the torment nexus meme.
thomassmith65 2 hours ago [-]
If a device made of human brain cells were designed to function like a traditional, deterministic CPU, that would raise similar questions as LLMs raise today.
nullpoint420 1 hours ago [-]
This seems reductionist with false equivalence. Wouldn't making a brain a "deterministic CPU" negate all the benefits of using organic tissue?
Someone 52 minutes ago [-]
Not if the organic tissue is faster or more energy efficient.
jacquesm 1 hours ago [-]
> that would raise similar questions as LLMs raise today
I think the questions would be very much different. LLMs are not made of human brain cells.
im3w1l 2 hours ago [-]
Maybe the real monsters were the friends we made along the way.
I can't help but think of "I have no mouth, and I must scream"
32 minutes ago [-]
bondarchuk 2 hours ago [-]
One of those research areas where nothing they currently do is unethical, but also nothing they currently do is useful, and right about the point where it might ever become useful is also the point where it becomes hugely unethical. So we'd do well to outlaw it right now, but seems like we don't really have a moral framework for cases like this.
magimas 57 minutes ago [-]
I don't see why we should outlaw this. There's so many potential insights to be gleaned from research like this that you just can't predict.
And making something like this illegal often has unintended side effects. What if brain organoid research is what ends up curing alzheimer's?
Advocating for outlawing parts of research just on the basis that in the future they could potentially turn unethical is very shortsighted in my opinion.
bondarchuk 21 minutes ago [-]
Sure, and you could say the same thing about unit 731. The argument is not that it is inconceivable that there are benefits, but that they should be weighed against the drawbacks, which you don't mention at all.
themgt 2 hours ago [-]
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Rendered at 20:41:40 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
I wondered if anyone had written about the ethics of this type of research, they have. It's super long so I've not finished it yet, but it generally seems the standard scientific assessment is that current organoids very likely lack the organization needed for "sentience", but, that methods for detecting subjective experience in organoids are not at all well established.
I think the questions would be very much different. LLMs are not made of human brain cells.
From 2004.
I can't help but think of "I have no mouth, and I must scream"
And making something like this illegal often has unintended side effects. What if brain organoid research is what ends up curing alzheimer's?
Advocating for outlawing parts of research just on the basis that in the future they could potentially turn unethical is very shortsighted in my opinion.