1.‘Wetware’ Breakthrough: Scientists Merge Human Mini-Brains With Computing Systems
**Living Brain Cells: The Future of AI? Hello, Living Computers!**
So, check this out: There's this company over in Switzerland called FinalSpark, and what they're doing is kind of mind-blowing. They're actually growing tiny little blobs of human brain cells, they call them organoids, and they're trying to see if they can use them like, well, tiny computers. Seriously, it sounds like something straight out of a science fiction movie. But these little clumps of brain matter might just change the game when it comes to AI.
I mean, think about it. Instead of the usual computers made from silicon chips, what if entire infrastructures were controlled by systems powered by actual, living cells? Sounds wild, right? Now, here's the thing: these cells are living things, so they need care. It's not just like fixing a bug in your laptop’s code; it's more like dealing with living tissue. This whole concept of biocomputing is a little out there, but also very genius. It basically mimics how our own brains function, which could lead to breakthroughs.
**Turning Skin Cells into Brain “Chips”**
Okay, so how does FinalSpark make this happen? Easy, they get skin cells from willing donors (they’re super careful about everything ethical, by the way). Next, they trick these skin cells into becoming stem cells. And then, bam, they turn the stem cells into brain cells. These little brain cells grow into these weird 3D shapes that look like mini pieces of a real brain. They end up being around the size of a fruit fly’s brain, which is around 10,000 brain cells each. Okay, it seems like a lot, but your brain has around a hundred billion cells to make it clear!
These structures are hooked up with sensors that allow the researchers to observe electrical activity. The scientists use these sensors to carefully watch the activity of the tiny brains. The brain cells react to electrical impulses. When the cells fire off signals or go quiet, scientists try to work out. Scientists are trying to figure out how these biological systems communicate.
Fred Jordan, who’s basically one of the masterminds behind this, thinks these biocomputers could be a major step forward. Instead of only copying the brain using computers, we could just use real brain stuff.
**Could This Solve the AI Energy Problem?**
Get this: using living biological material for our computers might actually be a way to conserve energy. Brain cells are surprisingly energy-efficient! When compared to the advanced AI systems, they utilize very little power to function.
Bioprocessors mainly need food. And the cool part is, you can grow a crazy amount of these things quickly in a lab environment! That’s important because regular AI chips can be really expensive and hard to get your hands on. So, the use of biological sources could be a way to make it much fairer.
**From Petri Dishes to Robot Brains?!?**
Now things get even crazier. FinalSpark’s brain organoids are being tested at universities – maybe close to ten or so. At Bristol University, Benjamin Ward-Cherrier stuck one of these organoids into a small robot. And guess what happened? The robot learned how to recognize letters in Braille! Not too terrible for a small computer!
Ward-Cherrier noted that these cells can be a bit spontaneous. He said that understanding signals from a biological brain is pretty tricky when comparing to regular robots. He jokes that standard robots are much simple to deal with.
He mentioned that these things sometimes die. Ward-Cherrier had an organoid give out on him while testing, so he had to start everything over. FinalSpark hopes to keep them going for up to six months, but this can be easier written than done.
**Medicine's Paying Attention**
Even if biocomputing doesn’t catch on for AI, it’s still is ready for medicine. Lena Smirnova at Johns Hopkins University is observing lab-grown brains to study things like autism and Alzheimer's. She is learning about the things that cause certain events. By watching how these brain cells behave, scientists can start to learn more about these diseases.
Smirnova is waiting, maybe after twenty years something will happen. For now, these lab-grown brains are being used for research and not for measuring things.
**Are These Actually Conscious???**
There are a lot of ethical situations when you are working with brain cells. Using human brain cells makes you wonder – could these little brains slowly start to realize things? Scientists don't think this will ever happen.
But FinalSpark has advisors and other experts to make it clean and safe. Jordan needs to make sure these things are watched very closely.
Right at the moment, there is not a lot about the human brain explained. How the brain makes consciousness is still a really big question. If scientists study the brain closer, this might help people find clues. Ward-Cherrier suggested that these organoids not only compute. He is hoping that because of organoids, people will start learning about the brain in a deep sense.
**What's in the Box?**
At FinalSpark, Jordan opened a box full of 16 of these brains. He said they never open the top. This means the cells don’t know what's going on. They are unable to tell you whats actually going on. So maybe for now, people will not get scared and just keep researching.
**To Sum Things Up: Living AI??**
Biocomputing is new, but it will have a grand effect. Now people are beginning to use living cells and change peoples thoughts. There is stuff about engineering, ethics, and much more to think about.
But this will help a lot on the goal for better computers and a cleaner Earth.
2.TiVo Won Its Legal Fights but Ultimately Lost the Streaming Battle
📺 **TiVo: From DVR King to Patent Holder – What Happened?**
Remember TiVo? Back in the early 2000s, it was everywhere. It wasn't just a gadget; it was something people said. Like, I'm gonna TiVo that, instead of record it. It was like Kleenex for tissues. Whether you wanted to catch the latest *Battlestar Galactica* or the Red Sox game, TiVo was it. It wasn't the first digital video recorder (DVR), but it made the idea cool. Before TiVo, recording TV was a pain. You had to mess with VHS tapes and hope you set the timer right. TiVo fixed that. It made things easy. You could pause live TV, rewind, and record one show while watching another. Seems normal now, but back then it was a big deal. It gave us control over what we watched and when. It was revolutionary.
These ideas had patent protection, US Patent 6,233,389, the Time Warp patent. This patent covered how TiVo let you control TV playback. For about ten years, starting in the early 2000s, TiVo was in court, protecting its system. They thought others were copying their special things. The biggest fight, with EchoStar, started in 2004 and ended in 2011, with EchoStar paying TiVo $500 million in a settlement. And EchoStar was just the first.
⚖️ **Court All the Time**
TiVo spent years in court, suing companies using their tech without permission. Motorola, Time Warner Cable, AT&T, Dish Network, Cisco, and Verizon all faced off with TiVo. Almost every time, TiVo won. The US Patent Office agreed that TiVo's claims were good. These wins showed TiVo was serious about protecting its work. It also took their focus off making new stuff.
Instead of using their money and brains to make the next cool thing or keeping with change, TiVo focused on licensing and court. That made money at first, but it meant the company didn't grow as much. It was as though being in the law business was more of a focus than keeping up with the times.
📉 **Streaming Shows Up**
Around 2010, a big deal happened. Entertainment started going to streaming. Netflix started in 2007, and Hulu in 2008. Roku launched its first thing in 2008. People started buying smart TVs from companies like Samsung. Streaming was here to stay, and TiVo's DVR way was getting old.
Cable companies started offering DVRs, making it hard for TiVo to get people to pay more for their product. TiVo's design was cool, and it had remote scheduling and file sharing, but it was too expensive. A good HD DVR from TiVo could cost $200 plus a monthly charge. Time Warner was giving out good enough DVRs for free.
Roku's boxes only cost about $50 by 2011. Google's Chromecast in 2013 made the price even lower. Smart TVs got better and better, streaming shows right on the TV. TiVo added Netflix and Hulu, but they were moving slower than anyone else.
🛑 **Old Hardware**
TiVo's boxes didn't change much. Instead of big change, they looked into stuff like ordering pizza using your TV. The Time Warp patent didn't matter anymore, less and less people used cable. People weren't watching old-style television, and TiVo's system depended on something that was losing customers.
Pay TV from cable in the United States had the most members in 2010. About 103 million homes, or 89% of consumers. By 2025, that went to 49.6 million, or just 37.6%. Streaming services, such as Netflix and Disney+, are common now. About 89.6 million and 56.8 million members in the U.S. and Canada, at the end of 2024.
Streaming places even started to act more regular TV, with live TV and sports so people will watch and advertising. While TiVo was still in court with companies, customers were leaving. It got bad.
🧾 **Patent Years**
TiVo was bought by Rovi. Rovi got rights to systems, and would do legal cases or licensing, to make profits. TiVo, the name everyone knew, had a new owner.
In 2020, Rovi joined with Xperi, another licensing thing. The statement about joining didn't mention TiVo hardware or anything with the system. The largest and diverse rights to systems would come from the business. All that mattered was their system rights.
📦 **Hardware Ends**
TiVo's last great set box, TiVo Edge, came out in 2019. Afterward, no equipment was made, without most people knowing. On October 1, 2025 TiVo said they sold the final box and won't make any more. Software is the plan.
TiVo will begin doing systems for smart TVs on Sharp TVs in America. The move happened too late. If they had looked system changes and streaming in the late 2000s, they might have created what TVs would become. Alternatively, they were just matching, and put out devices that seemed like a new version of Android TV.
🧠 **What They could have Done**
People loved TiVo's system and the little remote. Most people knew TiVo, and they had the tools to make a streaming platform like Roku or Fire TV. Instead, they tried to make money on what they made already. As TV changed, they supported a market that was going down.
Their call to send companies to court, instead of worrying about customers, made them fall behind. By the time they started doing smart TV systems, there was high demand and companies moved fast.
🧭 **In conclusion**: **Missed Times**
TiVo should tell you to never be too proud. They changed how people watched TV, but didn't change with what the customer wanted. They made some money in the beginning, but the last years were about legal fights and other things. In the long run, TiVo became a thing of the past and lost due to streaming.
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3.Happy Birthday to the NES — The Console That Defined a Generation
Wow, forty years since the Nintendo Entertainment System hit America on October 18, 1985! I wasn't even around then, but looking back, that thing was a game-changer. Forget just being an old console; it was a total phenomenon that grabbed everyone's interest. It was great time to join. Other businesses tried home consoles.
If you were a kid back then, the NES probably felt like it had always been there. Weird, huh? You just knew what a Nintendo was. Asking someone if they had one was like asking if the sky was blue. It was just... *the* Nintendo. We would sneak into our rooms when our parents were not around to avoid getting in trouble.
I've heard my older siblings tell stories of how they begged my parents for one. Took them ages to finally give in. The price was a big deal back then. The NES wasn't cheap, and neither were the games. That did not come between them.
Opening up that NES box must have felt like striking gold. It was this kind of boxy thing, but man, the magic was when you put it on. Suddenly, *Duck Hunt* taught people you had to point that light gun practically touching the screen! *Super Mario Bros.* was full of surprises, like secret stuff hiding everywhere. They weren't just any games back then; they were like these new crazy playgrounds.
Atari's stuff was still floating around at the time, but it felt ancient. Playing those old Atari consoles felt like a relic of a long, long time ago..
The NES was a step above arcade games. The images were not great, and the sounds were beeps and stuff, but it was more fun than the last one.
The NES made kids use their heads a bit. Games like *The Legend of Zelda* and *Metroid* weren't easy at all. You had to figure loads of things out yourself. Finally solving those puzzles gave you this amazing feeling.
*Super Mario Bros.* became a huge deal. Going down that first secret green pipe, you found a hidden world. The level was strange; random blocks, hard pathways, and worlds of secrecy. The creators probably wanted it to be played a lot. I imagine them dreaming of people playing the game.
Also, the NES gave us Mario. He started like an every day guy in *Donkey Kong*; now he was a mustachioed plumber. He was even on cereal boxes! Mario became Nintendo's main symbol, and gaming's too, most of the time. I wish I could know the first thoughts of creator, Shigeru Miyamoto.
Nintendo was our thing, yeah? Before memes, everyone was saying Zelda stuff (It's dangerous to go alone! Take this!). Everyone was talking about hidden secrets, besting Bowser, and glitches people found. The games were okay, but even better was being playing and talking about games with friends.
It shoved gaming into America. Being known and wanting to play games became normal. Before, it was more of a waste of time, but Nintendo made it okay with everyone.
Getting an NES was huge. For many, it made up new childhood memories. This helped the game change to where it is now.
So many people still got the old NES their parents picked up. It's old and dusty, but if you blow in the cartridges, they still light up. No idea why it helps, but some habits are very real.
For people who play games, it started with the NES. It was good about just being a kid, having wild imaginations, and chilling with buddies. Games are super nice but beats *Super Mario Bros.* and destroying ducks on *Duck Hunt*.
For me, the NES told me about what I liked. You could say it wasn't nice, sure, but it made everything for us. It made good memories that still make you smile today.
Even though the name Nintendo doesn't hold the same weight now, people with an NES got some heart in it. It doesn't just bring Nintendo memories back; it shows a moment of change for gaming. Remember how great it felt to touch an old controller? My hands would always be sweaty.
Happy 40th, NES. You nailed everything.
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