Nightmare Fuel

The fact that people are planning to use human brain cells in artificial intelligence data centers is so evil that it would give Peter Thiel an erection.

We really need to rein these folks in now. 

Last year, researchers at Australian biotech startup Cortical Labs showed off its CL1, the “world’s first code deployable biological computer” that’s made up of 200,000 living human neurons.

In February, the company showed off its progress, demonstrating how the neurons could be taught how to play the seminal video game Doom — a far more complex and impressive showing than much earlier attempts to have them play Pong in 2022.

Now, Cortical Labs is ready to scale up the operation. As Bloomberg reports, the company says it’s working on “biological data centers” in Melbourne, Australia, and Singapore. Simply put, instead of relying on Nvidia chips like AI companies, Cortical Labs is planning to outfit its futuristic facilities with racks of CL1 biological computers, powered by many more human brain cells, instead.

The company refers to this approach as “wetware,” an unsettling new take on software and hardware terminology. Simply put, the computers send electrical signals to neurons derived from human blood stem cells. The chips embedded within record those neurons’ responses as the output.

 It's like these guys watch The Matrix, and thought, "I gotta have me some of that."

Ecch (Tweet) of the Day

"I don't want to have to pay for Brain Premium to avoid getting Coca-Cola ads in my sleep."

— 12 yo on why he won't get a Neuralink implant

— Paul Graham (@paulg) December 4, 2024

Out of the mouth of babes………

Wear Your F%$#ing Mask

It turns out that Covid infects your central nervous system before it even reaches the blood.

Abstract

Neurological symptoms associated with COVID-19, acute and long term, suggest SARS-CoV-2 affects both the peripheral and central nervous systems (PNS/CNS). Although studies have shown olfactory and hematogenous invasion into the CNS, coinciding with neuroinflammation, little attention has been paid to susceptibility of the PNS to infection or to its contribution to CNS invasion. Here we show that sensory and autonomic neurons in the PNS are susceptible to productive infection with SARS-CoV-2 and outline physiological and molecular mechanisms mediating neuroinvasion. Our infection of K18-hACE2 mice, wild-type mice, and golden Syrian hamsters, as well as primary peripheral sensory and autonomic neuronal cultures, show viral RNA, proteins, and infectious virus in PNS neurons, satellite glial cells, and functionally connected CNS tissues. Additionally, we demonstrate, in vitro, that neuropilin-1 facilitates SARS-CoV-2 neuronal entry. SARS-CoV-2 rapidly invades the PNS prior to viremia, establishes a productive infection in peripheral neurons, and results in sensory symptoms often reported by COVID-19 patients.

Short version:  Covid can wreck your mind.

Wear a mask, or expect to start sounding like Donald Trump.

H/t ECop at the Stellar Parthenon BBS.

It's Called Covid

Teachers in England are noticing that students and their parents have been behaving exceedingly poorly over the past few years.

The story focuses on the lockdowns, and only states that, "Since Covid, people seem to be far less tolerant."

You don't just see this in schools.  You see it on the streets, where drivers are more aggressive, and in customer service, etc.

This is not people forgetting how to be social because of lock-downs, this is people suffering significant and long-lasting brain injury from Covid:

Headteachers in England have described a culture of non-compliance among pupils, as talks were held to try to avert further strikes at a school in Kent where staff walked out over student behaviour.

The Oasis Academy Isle of Sheppey hit the headlines last week after members of the National Education Union took strike action over fears for their safety, complaining of assaults and threats of violence.

While the problems at the school appear particularly acute, Guardian interviews with school leaders elsewhere revealed widespread concern about deteriorating behaviour among pupils, coupled with a lack of support for school policies from some parents, both issues highlighted in the Ofsted annual report last week.

………

Student behaviour is now “completely different” from what it used to be, she said.

“In the past students were in lessons. They might be disruptive in lessons and you’d have to deal with that kind of behaviour.

“But there’s a new thing coming up in schools in the last year and a half – students are turning up to school, but they don’t go into any lessons and they just wander around the building. They want to come for the social, but they don’t want to go into their lessons.

………

Nick Hurn, CEO at Bishop Wilkinson Catholic Education Trust, which has schools in Durham, Gateshead, Northumberland and Sunderland, said it was still only a small minority causing problems in schools.

“Since Covid, people seem to be far less tolerant, certainly parents, and that communicates itself to students as well,” he said.

Everyone looks at this, and assumes that this is the result of the disruption from the lock-downs.  It isn't.

The data is very clear.  By every measure, the psychological health and well-being of students IMPROVED during lock-down. 

Covid frequently causes an insult to the brain, whether through damage of structures or through inflammation.

We see this in emotional outbursts ans difficulty focusing.

A significant portion of students, and what is probably an even larger portion of adults, are neurologically compromised.

I don't know how to address this, but wringing ones hands over the social consequences of the initial lock-down of students is about a useful as tits on a bull.