Over the past decade, neuroscientists have begun using stem cell cultures to grow artificial brains, called brainorganoids — alternatives that sidestep the practical and ethical challenges of studying the real thing. But what if they become conscious? 🧠
“Without knowing more about what consciousness is and what building blocks it requires,” they write, “it might be hard to know what signals to look for in an experimental brain model.”
Based on some experiments, artificial brains seem to be at the fringe of awareness already. In 2017, a team of scientists from Harvard and MITwhile shining light upon an organoid’s photosensitive cells, showing that it could respond to sensory stimuli. But such experiments don’t — indeed, cannot — prove an organoid has any inner experience corresponding to the behavior we observe. Last year, a group of Japanese and Canadian philosophers, writing in the journalaltogether.
The researchers argue that how we ought to treat organoids depends on what they are able to experience. In particular, it hinges on “valence,” the feeling that something is pleasant or painful. Consciousness alone doesn’t demand moral status; it’s possible that certain forms of it don’t come equipped with suffering. No harm, no foul.But the more similar an organism is to us, the philosophers suggest, the more likely its experience resembles ours.
It only gets more outlandish, and more relevant to the ethical dilemma. If an artificial model of the visual cortex can generate visual experience, it stands to reason that a model of the limbic system could feel primitive emotions. Ascending the ladder of consciousness, maybe a model of theThe philosophers are quick to point out that this is all speculation.
, based to some extent on existing protocols for animal research. Among other things, they suggest creating no more organoids than necessary, making them only as complex as necessary to meet the goals of the research, and using them only when the expected benefits warrant potential harm.
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