After a successful trial in using a rat brain to control a robot, the scientists at the University of Reading in Great Britain will take their project to the next step and try for the first time to connect a robot to a human brain.
The first experiment used 300 000 nerve cells from the rat brain to control a small robot on wheels. The project initially aimed at getting a deeper knowledge of how the human brain works in order to get a better understanding of brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson by studying the brain signals.
The experiment with human brain cells is the first of its kind and could bring bioengineering and biomechanics in particular into a new era.
Optimists are already speculating the birth of AI: Artificial Intelligence.
I think we are still a bit far from creating AI. Controlling a robot with a human brain, although a huge step in the evolution of bioengineering, means that we only get a super human, a human working as machine, but still limited by a human brain and thus far away from artificial intelligence. It’s only human intelligence. Perhaps one could think of cloning Einstein’s brain and put it in a robot, but that’s another story. Getting the human brain beyond its normal capabilities will bring AI to life. In other words, when the human brain is able to establish a 2-way communication with the robot. The experiment uses electrical signals sent by the brain to control the robot, but the brain doesn’t receive or interpret any feedback signal.
When the brain can interpret an external electrical signal, then it will be able to use external memory storage, parallel processing units and so on.