Read Richard’s current thoughts about transhumanism and related fringe topics here.
In the mid-1990s, scientists succeeded in merging brain neurons with a microchip to allow communication between the two. Since then, scientists have improved the technology. Early in 2004 they succeeded in cultivating snail neurons on a microchip.
At the University of Florida, scientists have grown a brain from rat neurons [defunct link] that is learning to operate a flight simulator program on a computer. Insight into the way neurons network and learn could help improve computer and networking technologies.
Meanwhile, students at the University of Arizona are using modern AI technology to create small surveillance planes that think for themselves [defunct link]. Unmanned surveillance drones are increasingly being used by the military, but they are big. Smaller versions are harder to detect.
Biology and computer technology are beginning to merge in interesting ways, heralding an age of integration that may find us humans as just one component in a much more complex entity.