Hmm... This is a little misleading. It looks like they're using brain matter as a circuit, but not so much a conscious brain making decisions and having circuits interpret that.
The researchers aim to get the robot to learn, by applying different signals as it moves into predefined positions.
This line speaks most loudly that it's just a circuit.
It does make decisions, at first it just reacts to stimulation for example it runs it into a wall and they give it a shock, next time when it sees the wall it doesn't run into it! Which is pretty amazing.
Didn't Survival Research Labs have a mecha that had 4 legs, each of which was acutated by an electrode attached to a pet hamster's leg? If the writeup in Whole Earth Signals was correct, there was also a microphone that translated the hamster's squeaks into blasts from a flame thrower.
The researchers aim to get the robot to learn, by applying different signals as it moves into predefined positions.
This line speaks most loudly that it's just a circuit.
Am I mistaken?