# Intelligence with only neurone

**URL:** <https://discourse.numenta.org/t/intelligence-with-only-neurone/10197>\
**Category:** General Neuroscience\
**Created:** [October 13, 2022, 6:33pm UTC](https://discourse.numenta.org/t/intelligence-with-only-neurone/10197 "2022-10-13T18:33:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![alastair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/74df32/32.png) [@alastair](https://discourse.numenta.org/u/alastair)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2022, 6:33pm UTC](https://discourse.numenta.org/t/intelligence-with-only-neurone/10197/1 "2022-10-13T18:33:01Z")

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Interesting that this exhibits learning without the 6 layers, thalamus or hippocampus. That suggests that all these structures are optimisation, and the raw process of learning is intrinsic to neurons themselves. Perhaps that’s obvious since flies can learn flight control (for example) without the structures of the mammalian brain, but very interesting nonetheless imo. Here’s the article :

> **[In vitro neurons learn and exhibit sentience when embodied in a...](https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(22)00806-6?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0896627322008066%3Fshowall%3Dtrue)**
>
> The DishBrain system is the first real-time synthetic biological intelligence platform
> that demonstrates that biological neurons can adjust firing activity in a way that
> suggests the ability to learn to perform goal-oriented tasks when provided with...

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**Author:** ![Bitking](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.numenta.org/bitking/32/3099_2.png) [@Bitking](https://discourse.numenta.org/u/Bitking)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2022, 6:51pm UTC](https://discourse.numenta.org/t/intelligence-with-only-neurone/10197/2 "2022-10-13T18:51:18Z")

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Neurons in a dish learn to play Pong — what’s next?  
[https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03229-y](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03229-y)

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**Author:** ![david.pfx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c68b51/32.png) [@david.pfx](https://discourse.numenta.org/u/david.pfx)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2022, 11:20pm UTC](https://discourse.numenta.org/t/intelligence-with-only-neurone/10197/3 "2022-10-13T23:20:52Z")

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And another:  
[https://itwire.com/science-news/biology/brain-cells-in-a-dish-can-play-‘pong’.html](https://itwire.com/science-news/biology/brain-cells-in-a-dish-can-play-%e2%80%98pong%e2%80%99.html)

I really do think this is the way to go. Live brains are just too hard.  
[BTW this is my home city. 🏙🌆🎇]

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**Author:** ![EEProf](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.numenta.org/eeprof/32/5653_2.png) [@EEProf](https://discourse.numenta.org/u/EEProf)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2022, 1:43pm UTC](https://discourse.numenta.org/t/intelligence-with-only-neurone/10197/4 "2022-10-14T13:43:33Z")

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> [@david.pfx](#):
>
> BTW this is my home city.

Would explain the overnight posts 😉

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**Author:** ![Prometheushunter2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d07c76/32.png) [@Prometheushunter2](https://discourse.numenta.org/u/Prometheushunter2)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2023, 10:32pm UTC](https://discourse.numenta.org/t/intelligence-with-only-neurone/10197/5 "2023-07-31T22:32:04Z")

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I honestly hope that mass of neurons isn’t truly sentient, as the idea of creating a living (in the mental sense) being who’s only purpose in life is to play pong is… disquieting

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**Author:** ![steve9773](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.numenta.org/steve9773/32/5649_2.png) [@steve9773](https://discourse.numenta.org/u/steve9773)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2023, 3:03pm UTC](https://discourse.numenta.org/t/intelligence-with-only-neurone/10197/6 "2023-08-01T15:03:24Z")

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Has anyone checked [the original paper](https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(22)00806-6) in detail? Specifically, how confident are we that the results are _not_ just random noise + p-hacking? For example, at a glance, I am not super-impressed by these plots:

 ![image](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/numenta/original/2X/9/958ba48f244074befaea576a752ef452a7221a1e.jpeg)

Video S1 kinda looks real, and they _say_ it’s “representative” (as opposed to cherry-picked), but they don’t say anything specific to pin down what “representative” means, which makes me suspicious that it was in fact cherry-picked.

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**Author:** ![Prakash](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.numenta.org/prakash/32/6117_2.png) [@Prakash](https://discourse.numenta.org/u/Prakash)\
**Post date:** [August 2, 2023, 1:12pm UTC](https://discourse.numenta.org/t/intelligence-with-only-neurone/10197/7 "2023-08-02T13:12:00Z")

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What is your definition of intelligence?