{"id":1462,"date":"2015-10-27T16:08:29","date_gmt":"2015-10-27T16:08:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brainpreservation.org\/?p=1462"},"modified":"2015-10-29T18:45:40","modified_gmt":"2015-10-29T18:45:40","slug":"why-brain-emulation-is-coming-sooner-than-many-think-response-to-dr-miller-editorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brainpreservation.org\/zh\/why-brain-emulation-is-coming-sooner-than-many-think-response-to-dr-miller-editorial\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Brain Emulation is Coming Sooner Than Many Think – A BPF Response to Dr. Miller’s NYT Editorial on Brain Emulation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Kenneth D. Miller, Co-Director of the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at Columbia University, in a recent editorial in the <\/span>New York Times,\u00a0<\/span><\/i>\u201cWill You Ever Be Able to Upload Your Brain?<\/a>\u201d<\/span>, \u00a0recently raised several skeptical arguments about the possibility of brain uploading. A key point to take away from this essay is that Dr. Miller actually agrees that successful brain emulation is possible and consistent with our current understanding of the brain. He says:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI am a theoretical neuroscientist. I study models of brain circuits, precisely the sort of models that would be needed to try to reconstruct or emulate a functioning brain from a detailed knowledge of its structure. I don\u2019t in principle see any reason that what I\u2019ve described could not someday, in the very far future, be achieved.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While Miller acknowledges the theoretical possibility of brain emulation, he is very skeptical about any near-term ability to do so, claiming that successfully emulating a human brain is not only infeasible with current and impending technologies (a claim no one would dispute), but that it will also vastly outstrip technological capabilities far into the future. We at the Brain Preservation Foundation (BPF) certainly agree that brain emulation presents tremendous challenges.\u00a0 For example, Kenneth Hayworth, President of the BPF, has described the resources and effort needed to emulate a human brain as akin to a \u201cmoon shot project,\u201d meaning that society would have to devote significant resources to the project over decades. However, such a projection contrasts starkly against Miller\u2019s suggestion that such a project could take \u201cthousands or even millions of years\u201d.<\/p>\n

Two very promising techniques for brain preservation have recently been developed by BPF prize contenders, one by Dr. Robert McIntyre<\/a> and another by Dr. Shawn Mikula<\/a><\/span>. While it is still an open question, these methods are likely to preserve the connectome and all the molecular detail necessary for a person’s memory and identity; this is an exciting area of current research. Far from being pessimistic, we have every reason to be hopeful that validated and reliable human\u00a0brain preservation protocols will be developed in the next decade. Memory and identity theory and emulation research, for its part, will also continue to advance, and we have many reasons to expect\u00a0validated models for long-term memory storage, beginning in well-studied circuits in simple model organisms, again within the next decade.<\/span><\/p>\n

One reason for our considerably more optimistic predictions is that brain emulation relies on computing and other information technologies, fields that have classically enjoyed exponential gains in capability and should continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Computational neuroscience is now big science, and significant resources, above and beyond previous investments and commitments, are now being devoted to emulation. See for example the the EC-funded Human Brain Project<\/a>. In basic neuroscience, new tools and funding have emerged for\u00a0mapping and understanding the connectome and the “synaptome,” Dr. Stephen Smith’s term for the deep synaptic diversity that exists at each synaptic bouton. See his presentation, The Synaptome Meets the Connectome<\/a>, 2012 (below), to appreciate how great this diversity\u00a0is, and how incomplete our models of it are\u00a0to date. Fortunately, new\u00a0funding for synaptic characterization, including\u00a0the NIH-funded BRAIN Initiative<\/a>, has also emerged<\/span>. This increase in research and funding is driven by the need to better understand complicated mental illnesses as well as the general goal of bettering our understanding of the brain in both its structural and functional aspects. Therefore, our knowledge of the workings of the neuron and brain will continue to improve.<\/span><\/p>\n