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If we are okay doing it to mice and chimps, we should be fine doing it to organoids. These are not going to be much smarter and self-aware than either of those
by devoply 7y ago
If we are okay doing it to mice and chimps, we should be fine doing it to organoids. These are not going to be much smarter and self-aware than either of those and yet we have no issues. Further these are brains in vats not linked to any sensors and what not. Their existence appears and disappears like that without any input from their environment. Our brains don't feel pain.
- cairo_x 7y agoNobody has any idea what their inner experience is. People who've been blind since birth still exhibit visual activity during REM sleep and dreaming, as do fetuses (Schöpf et al. (2014). Some people born without limbs still feel pain in phantom limbs. Most people born with congenitally missing limbs do not experience phantom limbs, but a small subset do (body maps exist in the brain inherently). Pain can absolutely be perceived without any form of 'input'. Be that as it all may, it is impossible to tell whether something is experiencing qualia. The best we have to go on are brain waves and the existence of neurotransmitters which serve qualia--both of which organoids begin to produce.
- 0xdeadb00f 7y agoFor anyone who read this comment and was wondering what "qualia" actually is, I found an old episode of VSause about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evQsOFQju08 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evQsOFQju08 .
- ozzmotik 7y agothis made me realize, the brain in a vat metaphor is certainly going to become a lot more visceral
- noname120 7y agoOr maybe this is the other way around. If we have mixed feelings about doing this to organoids, why is it okay to do it to mice and chimps?
- inflatableDodo 7y agoOur brains certainly experience pain, even if burning a bit off doesn't trigger it. Also, we are not all entirely fine with what is done to mice and chimps.