No brainer?

The scientists stare at the screen in shock. The video game is going well - really well, considering that the player is not conscious. The game is called Pong, a 1970s tennis classic. And the player is a group of human brain cells made by scientists in a lab.

In a thought experiment of the 1970s, we are asked to imagine a human brain stored in a vat by a mad scientist. The scientist has kept the brain alive and plugged it into a computer-generated "reality". The brain has no idea that the world it inhabits is an illusionSomething which seems true but is not. . Is this still consciousness?¹

The experiment is used to explore many philosophical and scientific questions. But some scientists say that it shows that consciousness is purely a product of brain's biology.

Most would agree that keeping a brain in a vat to simulate a false reality is wrong. Scientists had mostly ruled out experimenting on brains before death at all. Then they developed mini brains.

Mini brains, or little collections of human brain cells grown in a lab dish, were first produced in 2013. These modest little blobs, around the size of a peppercorn, promise some of the greatest medical advancements of this century.

Now, researchers report that they have taught the cells to play a 1970s video game called Pong. They claim that the mini brain, or "cerebral organoid" in more technical terms, learned to play the game within five minutes with a relatively high success rate.²

This is good news. Mini brains are used to study a host of conditions such as microcephalyA birth defect causing a baby's head to be much smaller than normal, and often their brain too. , epilepsy, dementia, motor neurone disease and autism spectrum disorder. As they improve in quality, the research will get better too.

However, others want more debates about the ethics of mini brains. Researchers will soon have to think about what to do if their experimental subjects show signs of consciousness.

Some have accused scientists working with consciousness of "playing god". Others would welcome further advancement in our understanding. Now, it sits on the horizon of what is possible.

Yes: Consciousness is a scientific phenomenon. There is no reason why the brains, if they continue to grow, could not become conscious in the same way a human brain does as it grows in the womb.

No: Artificial brains will never become conscious. Whatever else science might achieve, it cannot create a soul in the lab.

Or... It is a possibility in the future, but still a distant one. Nothing in their research proves that the brains have feelings. We should celebrate the advancement in research, rather than getting swamped in debates about consciousness.