Dog brain in a dish plays Quake 3: Arena

Don't get all PETA on us, we're just the messenger, but a University of Texas scientist has grown a living "brain" in a petri dish using 50,000 nerve cells from a dog. We're sure there are many noble things to be done with a brain in a dish, but this scientist has instead opted for a bit of Quake 3: Arena. Sure, he says it's all about "how the brain makes decisions based on enormous amounts of real time information," so that "we can design adaptable computer systems capable of better pattern recognition." But we know he just wanted a better alternative to getting completely pwned in Online multiplayer. The brain is hooked up to the game via 120 electrodes, and while at first the neurons in the dish are separate and unconnected, over time they start to naturally form connections and fragging like only a brain in a dish can. Be sure to check videos of the Quake 3 action, which track the progress from 4 hours of learning all the way to 9 days of learning.

Interesting.....though I also went to the offical page of the experiemnt, which shows videos of its progress, and it seems to be improving quite abit, after 9 days it does pretty good with combat. What would be neat if they would allow people to actually fight the brain in quake, to give it some more varied learning from other human competitors. The offical article can be found at this location.

Dog brain in a dish plays Quake 3: Arena - Engadget

technorati tags:Quake 3, Gaming, PC, PC Gaming, Brain, Dog Nerves

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