内容摘要：Mr Muhammed also lost family, remembering his uncle who died in the disaster.

Mr Muhammed also lost family, remembering his uncle who died in the disaster.

"She has travelled a lot in her life, so I think it would be fun to do it with her."In a statement, issued by a family member, Sam's parents Jo and Andrew said they were "devastated".

"Sam left us far too soon, and while words will never fully capture the light, joy and energy he brought into our lives, we hold on to the memories that made him so special," they added.Sam's parents said he was "adored by his family" and described him as "loyal, funny and fiercely protective".They added the Race Across the World experience "opened Sam's eyes to the wonder of adventure".

Sam's uncle Jonny Dunlop, told the BBC: "What you saw was what you got. Sam loved gardening, animals and doing physical activity."Mr Dunlop said his sister Jo and Sam had a "special relationship" and were an "enormous hit on the show", adding: "The public really loved them."

In a statement, a Race Across the World spokesperson, said: "Everyone who worked with him and indeed everyone who watched Sam could see just how precious and transformative the trip was for both him and his mum, Jo.

"Sam embraced the seven-week trip with an energy, love and a determination that saw the pair enjoy adventures across Mexico to Argentina making audiences fall in love with them and their special bond as a result."In brains, unlike computers, it's hard to separate what they do from what they are." Without this separation, he argues, it's difficult to believe that brains "are simply meat-based computers".

And if Prof Seth's intuition about life being important is on the right track, the most likely technology will not be made of silicon run on computer code, but will rather consist of tiny collections of nerve cells the size of lentil grains that are currently being grown in labs.Called "mini-brains" in media reports, they are referred to as "cerebral organoids" by the scientific community, which uses them to research how the brain works, and for drug testing.

One Australian firm, Cortical Labs, in Melbourne, has even developed a system of nerve cells in a dish that can play the 1972 sports video game Pong. Although it is a far cry from a conscious system, the so-called "brain in a dish" is spooky as it moves a paddle up and down a screen to bat back a pixelated ball.Some experts feel that if consciousness is to emerge, it is most likely to be from larger, more advanced versions of these living tissue systems.