Earlier this year, John Hopkins University scientists revealed that they had created something astonishing: a miniature whole human brain.
Specifically, it was a type of organoid, a small mass of human tissue grown from stem cells meant to mimic the function of our organs — and, most importantly, serve as a test bed to study diseases and new drugs for treatment.
The existence of this lab-grown brain and other similar organoids have gotten some scientists speculating that these little walnuts may become conscious in the future — essentially a soupçon of human sentience in a petri dish — which, of course, carries immense ethical implications and icks a lot of people out.
That was borne out by a recent poll conducted by Live Science, in which 657 readers responded to the question: “If brain organoids become conscious, should we experiment on them?”
Around 23 percent slammed the door shut on the whole idea, saying there’d be zero ethical justification for it. Even if rudimentary, a miniature conscious human brain could have the ability to think and feel pain and fear.
“I really don’t see a breakthrough here worth the literal lives of these created beings once they gain consciousness,” a reader wrote to Live Science. “I have no mouth and I must scream…”
Another 25 percent said scientists shouldn’t test on organoids that are sentient, but that working on unconscious organoids is fine as long as they’re monitored for any sign of awareness.
Twenty-two percent said experimenting on conscious organoids are fine, but regulations governing their welfare is needed, and 19 percent of readers said no changes are needed in any current rules about handling these organisms. The remainder were on the fence about the question.
It’s not clear how far along we are towards a brain organoid that has a shred of sentience, but there’s a sense that we’re tiptoeing towards that possibility; previous experiments on organoids were simpler, but now, like in the John Hopkins study, researchers can put together more complex organoids that link together different parts of brain matter. From there, it doesn’t take much to imagine a thought bubbling up from all those lab-grown neurons.
More on brains: Neuroscientist Says We’re All Wrong About Root of Consciousness in Our Brains