Primrose Road

Score one for posthumanism: at the University of Reading, they've developed a brain-like robot controlled by rat neurons. (Read about it here and listen to the report on The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe.) Apparently, the robot was able to "learn" within a week.

Some (over)excited commentators on newer media have posited that programming, hypertext, and/or networking serve as not merely metaphors but near-perfect models for how the human brain works. Posthumanism does something different: it starts from the idea that we can create consciousness in a lab. If consciousness can develop and function outside the human brain, "consciousness" is not necessarily human nor is it what necessarily makes us human.

This works out quite nicely for humanities-people seeking a philosophy that doesn't overvalue consciousness ("subjectivity" = thinking makes it so?) and for science-people who are (thankfully) challenging neo-Cartesian dualist arguments.