“a university of florida scientist has grown a living brain that can fly a simulated plane” why, you may very well ask? why do swaths of puny humans continually try to climb mount everest? because life is long and boring and there’s not all that much to do really once you’ve rented the whole run of futurama on dvd. in any case this guy’s a scientist and doing frankenshit like this, probing and unlocking the mysteries of the brain, well, it’s his job.

of course all that “understanding the brain for the betterment of humanity” stuff does not secure any decent funding i’m sure, so as a nod to the fiercely practical pocketbooks we get: living computers may someday be used to fly small unmanned airplanes or handle tasks that are dangerous for humans, such as search-and-rescue missions or bomb damage assessments.” hahaha. yeah. why does every scientific inquiry need to pay off with better bomb management and/or faster computers!? ever noticed that? in any case even though it is pretty cool i can’t help but be mystified by the whole thing. what is their motivation? how does he make it clear to the little dish dwelling brain cells what their goal is? from the article: “to control the simulated aircraft, the neurons first receive information from the computer about flight conditions.” huh? wtf is going on in there man?