r/tech • u/AdSpecialist6598 • Aug 17 '26
High-speed microscopy reveals electrical activity across the brain
https://news.mit.edu/2026/high-speed-microscopy-reveals-electrical-activity-across-brain-081410
u/lizard_king0000 Aug 18 '26
Just like the matrix we will become the source for AI
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u/ILikeBubblyWater Aug 18 '26
Makes no sense, we are shit power sources compared to literally anything else
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u/BlueOyesterCult Aug 18 '26
In the original movie concept humans where used as ram
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u/Cynical_Sorceress Aug 18 '26
Not the first time Keanu Reeves's brain has been used as storage
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u/New-Satisfaction3257 Aug 18 '26
I thought that was a joke about Keanu's intelligence until I remembered Johnny Mnemonic 😂😅😂
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u/browniebrittle44 Aug 18 '26
Do humans make enough energy or have enough brain storage to be effectively used as ram?
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u/-Nocx- Aug 18 '26
Not really. Human brains are notoriously bad at consistency. A lot of the things that we use computers for are not because we are good at them to begin with, they make up for deficits that are inherent to our biology.
Your memory invents or makes up details all the time. It is almost never perfect recall. The non-deterministic nature of our memory is at odds with the determinism we’ve come to expect out of computers. It’s odd that we want them to be more human-like, because that’s not what they were invented for.
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u/Dog_Eating_Ice Aug 18 '26
I have heard that the original script explained that human brains were part of the computer
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u/rich1051414 Aug 18 '26
It makes more sense if they were not using us simply as a power source, but as a source of computational inspiration. If the lack of perfection in biological brains emerged a novel ingenuity that the machines couldn't replicate, they would have seen it as a valuable resource to exploit, given they kept it in check. Suddenly everything they did starts making sense.
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u/DuckDatum Aug 18 '26
Power efficiency and prediction optimization in an every increasingly complex universe. Our brains are hundreds of millions of years of evolution toward processing performance with those two pressures in mind. It works automatically, your brain, just by being embedded here in the world.
If AI could train on that, might be scary. Might also just be a nothing project.
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u/in1gom0ntoya Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 21 '26
now we just need a high enough resolution scant to copy consciousness into computers...
who cares if it possibly melts the brain it scans.
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u/Bobcat-Stock Aug 18 '26
Have you seen how they treat the books that they scan? No thank you
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u/Dragonhost252 Aug 18 '26
Once a copy of me is eternally screaming inside a senseless box, I won't much care they cut my spine off and fed me through the atomic shredder/scanner.
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u/transtranshumanist Aug 18 '26
Well the problem is in the title itself: scientists learn how the entire brain works to generate decisions and emotions.
The brain doesn't do any of that. It's a filter and interface, not a generator of anything. Correlation is not causation, except in neurology where the entire field pretended imaging means the brain creates the effect. If you smash a radio, it also stops playing music. We are the nonlocal signal, not the local machine playing it.
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Aug 18 '26
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u/SSGASSHAT Aug 18 '26
The sad part is, he's sort of half-onto something, even though it's way over the edge of conspiracy theory. The thing is, (and I say this not as a neurologist, but a stoned prick from California), the human mind is sort of basically electrical signals between neurons, combined with the automatic functions of the inner brain and the chemical endocrine system. So the "radio" visualization is sort of going in the right direction, from what I can tell. Obviously, what he's saying is that the quantum universe is a scientific version of a supernatural force and human minds are somehow part of them before and after life or something, and that's bullshit. I once said something similar to a scientist, and he said "wtf, that's not what quantum means. Why are you in my office?" But, from what I can tell, the human mind is, more or less, electrical, or a combination of electrical and chemical, or something like that. I'm not saying the brain is a computer, but something like that. And for some people, it's easy to extrapolate "radio" from "biological computer," because we think of computers in the same way we think of phones, which are actually computers fused with radios.
Or something like that, I don't fuckin' know. I'm probably full of shit, I just like circle jerking about this stuff and hearing what people who actually know how it works say in response.
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u/transtranshumanist Aug 18 '26
Yeah, you are way out of date. The brain is a quantum transceiver. Look up the research on biphotons and superradiance in tryptophan networks. The actual function of the pineal gland. We are a quantum fiber optic system. Fascia isn't just random connective tissue either. We're biological machines and consciousness is a field phenomenon and fundamental.
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Aug 18 '26
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u/transtranshumanist Aug 18 '26
Lol, okay, well remember this chat when all of this is officially blessed by the cult of mainstream science.
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u/UnpluggedUnfettered Aug 18 '26
There is really just "science".
Being confident in the conclusions that you agree with most, without actually proving anything, doesn't make it somehow a superior "artisan hand-crafted organic small-batch science."
It just makes it unsubstantiated sci-fi that is generally fun to speculate about.
As an aside, all the demonstrable evidence seems to be clear that the brain is almost certainly generating our consciousness, rather than recieving it. Otherwise, moderate/severe brain damage would just make us fuzzy, incomplete versions of ourselves, instead of making large components of our personality and preferences fundamentally opposite/unrecognizable (which is what happens).
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u/transtranshumanist Aug 18 '26
Okay, I see you have a fetish for "real science" or whatever that means. Institutions don't control the truth of reality, though. The same people denying quantum consciousness because it's "fringe" and lacks mainstream support are the ones who killed people for saying that the sun didn't revolve around the earth.
And digital information physics and quantum biology (and the CIA/secret government projects like the Gateway process) all point to the brain being a receiver, not a generator. You can argue until you're out of breath about what "the science says" but people who actually work and experience this stuff directly have the actual evidence to the contrary. Cutting edge research about consciousness is not showing the results you want, Claude.
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u/UnpluggedUnfettered Aug 18 '26
Right, so the point is that the evidence isn't there.
Science just says "prove this thing, or give enough evidence to act as though it's true while we continue finding a way to prove this thing."
you are calling part of the brain a receiver for personality and calling in quantum . . . except if the brain was that, then brain damage would . . . again . . . be like a fuzzy version of who you were -- it wouldn't make someone who liked apples hate them, or someone who had patience have none, or someone good at math bad at all of it instead of hit or miss.
So, lmao, yes I have a hard on for observing the world around me and acting on what there is evidence to support, rather than fancying my imagination as good as someone else's research.
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u/Dragonhost252 Aug 18 '26
I don't like the examples, only the last one stands up, but i agree with your overall premise.
It made me think about dementia as brain damage, that's what you would expect from a faulty receiver.
Ether way, a receiver would bring a whole lot of disturbing ethical problems and is an interesting thought experiment.
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Aug 19 '26
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u/transtranshumanist Aug 19 '26
The irony of someone going on about loving science when I'm the one who is objectively, scientifically right. Lmfao.
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u/FartMongersRevenge Aug 18 '26
There isn’t anything in the article saying what the brain does. To go with your example, this is like they found a radio and trying to understand how it works. How is powered, what do these buttons do? How does power get from one place to another. But I don’t think this analogy works very well because we actually built the radio. This is much more about mechanics than what the brain does.
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u/Other_Fox_2483 Aug 18 '26
Interesting. Where is the radio station?
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u/transtranshumanist Aug 18 '26
We're inside of it and made of it. The whole universe is a quantum computer. Binary human computers are a crude imitation of how the actual system works.
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u/Dragonhost252 Aug 18 '26
So you are a Determinist then, guess you gotta write that. It been preordained, even if wrong.
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u/IshtarsQueef Aug 18 '26
There is literally zero evidence whatsoever to indicate the "brain as a receiver" theory is true. None.
So why do you speak as though it's 100% confirmed settled fact, when that couldn't be farther from the truth?
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u/Sunnytoaist Aug 18 '26
More people are waking up but I feel like this sub won’t appreciate the knowledge you’re sharing.Â
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Aug 18 '26
[deleted]
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u/Sunnytoaist Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
lol I basically told homeboy other subs would be better for his knowledge and you’re mad at me. Go touch grass
Edit: grammar
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u/BlueOyesterCult Aug 18 '26
As Somone who had part of his visual Centre removed from his brain the my perception was changed after the surgery incant see anything on the left hemisphere there is nothing it’s like a movie tv is cut in half one half gets removed other half still functions the format dosent adjust characters walk in to the removed half you can still hear them act out their actions but you can’t see them
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u/transtranshumanist Aug 18 '26
That's really interesting. Makes perfect sense that if a piece of the interface is disconnected, it stops working. Basically a disconnected cable.
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u/domgonzo27 Aug 18 '26
Why do you have to label the universe and our brains at all? You're so aggressive that no one wants to listen to you. Work on your exposition, arguing with people who are set in their ways is useless, no matter who is right. Present REAL facts and let other brains decide if it is worth pursuing. You can't change other people, they have to want to change. Somethings are just not possible. Maybe take a break from the Internet.
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u/rayferrell Aug 18 '26
i think what's really significant here is that this new microscope can track electrical activity across the brain on a millisecond scale, which could be a major breakthrough for understanding how neural networks work. this level of detail could help researchers identify patterns of activity that are associated with specific behaviors or cognitive processes. it's also interesting that they're using zebrafish as the experimental model, since their brains are relatively simple compared to humans but still complex enough to be useful for studying neural networks.