The world’s first ‘body in a box’ biological computer costs $35,000 and looks both cool as hell plus creepy as heck

Here’s one for you: when is a ‘body in a box’ not as macabre as it sounds? Simple—when it’s a tech startup. Wait! Put the turn-of-the-millennium trench coat and sunglasses combo down! Let me explain.

The CL1 is described as “the world’s first code deployable biological computer” according to the splashy website, incorporating human brain cells in order to send and receive electrical signals (via The Independent). These cells hang out on the surface of the computer’s silicon chip, and the machine’s Biological Intelligence Operating System (or biOS for short—cute), allows users to wrangle the neurons for a variety of computing tasks.

Organic hardware like this for research purposes isn’t new—for just one example, FinalSpark’s Neuroplatform began offering rentable ‘minibrains’ last year.

The neurons central to the CL1 are lab-grown, cultivated inside a nutrient rich solution and then kept alive thanks to a tightly temperature controlled environment working alongside an internal life support system. Under favourable conditions, the cells can survive for up to six months. Hence, the project’s chief scientific officer Brett Kagan pitching it “like a body in a box.”

Should you be so inclined to pick up your own surprisingly fleshy, short-lived computer, you can do so from June…for $35,000. Now, I know what you’re thinking—not because you’re actually living life in a Matrix-style pod, but purely because I’m asking the same question: Why?

First, a smidge more background on this brain box, which is the latest project from Cortical Labs, and was unveiled this week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. We’ve covered this Melbourne-based company before, with highlights including that time their team coaxed brain cells in a petri dish to learn Pong faster than AI.

That lattermost experiment is the CL1’s great grandparent, with continued scientific interest fostered by the hope that ‘wetware’ like lab-grown brain cells could give robotics and AI a serious leg-up. Whereas traditional AI can play something like the theatre kid favourite of ‘yes, and’ but totally lacks any true understanding of context, the lab-grown neurons could potentially learn and adapt.

Furthermore, the lab-grown cells are apparently much more energy efficient compared to the power demands of AI using more traditional, non-biological computers. Turns out the old noggin cells are still showing that new-fangled silicon a trick or two. Who would have thought?

However, there’s no avoiding the question of ethics: what are these brain cells experiencing, and is it anything like sentience—or suffering? Perhaps my questions verge on the hyperbolic, but my own osseous brain box can do nothing but wonder.