[a-r-t]

From the article: "The researchers also applied their technique to three-millimeter cubes of brain tissue from a 9-month-old girl with epilepsy. The tissue maintained its pre-freezing structure and remained active in a laboratory culture for at least two weeks after being thawed."

[Waterluvian]

> and remained active in a laboratory culture for at least two weeks after being thawed

I’m sure I don’t fully understand the details but this kind of thing both excites and horrifies me when I ponder how much brain might be necessary to sustain the experience of consciousness.

[lisper]

My personal opinion is that it's not just about brain quantity. I think being embedded in an environment is necessary for consciousness. My argument is that there is no such thing as unqualified consciousness -- you have to be conscious of something. You're not born aware of yourself, you spend the first few years of your life figuring out that you are embedded in this thing called a human body that, with considerable practice, you can exercise more-or-less direct control over. After more years you figure out that your body is further embedded in a world full of other things that you have only indirect (at best) control over, or no control at all. Only after all that can you draw a line between you and not-you and become aware of "your" existence.

[velcrovan]

Even the actual entire brain you have right now can't sustain the experience of consciousness during sleep, or while under the influence of sedatives, or during times of sudden trauma.

[dmbche]

look into the Portia spider - fun rabbit hole!

[lallysingh]

Meh. If we want immorality we'll probably end up converting a brain scan to an LLM.

Medically this could be great for preventing brain damage.

[zaptrem]

Likely relevant to source of the living brain tissue:

“Brain biopsies on 'vulnerable' patients at Mount Sinai set off alarm bells at FDA, documents show” https://www.cea.fr/english/Pages/News/world-premiere-living-...

[Atotalnoob]

A millimeter cube seems large when it comes to a 9 month… Let alone 3…

This seems weird that they got this much LIVING brain tissue…

[victorbjorklund]

Resective surgery is the most common epilepsy surgery. It involves the removal of a small portion of the brain. The surgeon cuts out brain tissue from the area of the brain where seizures occur. This is usually the site of a tumor, brain injury or malformation

https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/epilepsy-surgery...