Research on cerebral organoids has advanced to creating assembloids, which are interactive complexes from these organoids. For instance, a model of the human spinothalamic pathway has been developed, prompting inquiry into whether it can experience consciousness. The debate extends beyond mammals and birds to various animals, such as fish and cephalopods, with different views on their conscious states. Additionally, the question of when consciousness emerges in humans is contested, complicating the understanding of entity consciousness in general, including non-human systems.
Increasingly, organoids are being fused to create 'assembloids', complexes of interacting organoids. Sergiu Pasca's laboratory at Stanford University has created an assembloid that models the human spinothalamic pathway, a neural circuit critical for the transmission of sensory information from the body to the brain.
It is now generally accepted that mammals and birds are capable of consciousness, but there is little consensus about consciousness in fish, reptiles, amphibians, cephalopods or insects.
There are long-standing debates about whether consciousness might be present from (or even before) birth, or whether it arises only weeks, perhaps even months, after birth.
There is a more fundamental issue raised by the distribution question: what do we even mean when we ask whether bots, bees or babies are conscious?
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