# Brain in petri jar flies plane **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 10, 2004, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-in-petri-jar-flies-plane/279125 "2004-12-10T14:50:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Blackclaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e68b1a/32.png) [@Blackclaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackclaw)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-in-petri-jar-flies-plane/279125/1 "2004-12-10T14:50:55Z")
Ok, this story just fascinates, confuses, and frightens me all at the same time. [http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/12/06/1102182227308.html?oneclick=true](http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/12/06/1102182227308.html?oneclick=true) Can someone explain how this works and then put it into a philsophical context that doesn’t reduce my sense of self to a random blob of goo? ---
**Author:** ![VenusProbe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e495f1/32.png) [@VenusProbe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VenusProbe)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-in-petri-jar-flies-plane/279125/2 "2004-12-10T14:59:30Z")
All I got was some registration page ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Berkut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Berkut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Berkut)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-in-petri-jar-flies-plane/279125/3 "2004-12-10T15:01:17Z")
[Tuckerfan beat you to it.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=290595) I’ve been flying planes for years and my brain is barely more sophisticated than this thing, so don’t be worried. This isn’t new ground. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-in-petri-jar-flies-plane/279125/4 "2004-12-10T16:33:29Z")
I was blown away when I read that article yesterday. This is by far the most advanced work I have seen done in this area, if indeed the quasi-brain did everything the article claims it did. It seems to me it amy be just a tad overblown, and they didn’t mention how long the brain lived? But they seemingly did achieve a successful biological computer with hardware/wetware integration. All must now bow before our new rat-brained (mutine?) Borg overlords. Can’t be any worse than Bush. ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-in-petri-jar-flies-plane/279125/5 "2004-12-10T19:54:48Z")
Have they solved the problem of your computer literally dying? And that article is amazing, btw. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-in-petri-jar-flies-plane/279125/6 "2004-12-10T20:28:28Z")
> [@Blackclaw](#): > > Can someone explain how this works and then put it into a philsophical context that doesn’t reduce my sense of self to a random blob of goo? Simple: You are a blob of goo. But you are a lot more complex than 25,000 neurons spread out over a set of electrodes. What they did was use neurons in a self-organizing pattern to perform a bunch of processing in a feedback loop. That is, the neurons arranged themselves in the best pattern to keep the outside in a steady state, which seems to be a strong tropsim for neurons in general. [The slashdot story](http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/24/0024241&tid=191&tid=126&tid=14) about this dates to October 23. Y’all are a little slow on the trigger. ---
**Author:** ![Blackclaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e68b1a/32.png) [@Blackclaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackclaw)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-in-petri-jar-flies-plane/279125/7 "2004-12-10T20:35:26Z")
> [@Berkut](#): > > [Tuckerfan beat you to it.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=290595) > > I’ve been flying planes for years and my brain is barely more sophisticated than this thing, so don’t be worried. This isn’t new ground. 😉 Oops, well maybe a mod can blend this thread in or something. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-in-petri-jar-flies-plane/279125/8 "2004-12-10T20:35:41Z")
> [@](#): > > The slashdot story about this dates to October 23. Y’all are a little slow on the trigger. Well, that’s only because it took us a while to arrange our neurons in the best pattern to keep the outside in a steady state. ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2004, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-in-petri-jar-flies-plane/279125/9 "2004-12-10T21:01:58Z")
I fell off my bike today. Afterward I became quite depressed that a mutant rat brain can fly an F-22 fighter jet.