SS09: Randal Koene "The Time is Now We Need Whole Brain Emulation"

Benjamin Peterson is covering the Singularity Summit for Sentient Developments.

"Is the brain enough? Is the mind enough?"

Don't bother wasting time on the engineering biospheres for humans to live in space! Just figure out how to move what's in our skulls into a different substrate.

Physicality of the mind ... information must be preserved. move the mind off the meat substrate. Randal is impressing upon his audience the importance of shedding the fleshbag.

Theodore Berger building hippocampus replacement.

"In-vivo techniques, neural recording, neural interfacing:

• Scary/risky procedures

• chronic implantation

• power supply

• scale and bandwidth .."

Different technologies could provide less-invasive (?) modalities: qdots.

Multiscale scanning requirements, need to record neuronal activity at different levels of activity (voxel, group, spike, analog, spatial, molecular)

The human connectome. Automated tape-collecting lathe ultramicrotome ... o.O

Question from the audience regarding continuity. "If you make a copy the original dies ... what about the problem of continuity?"

SS09: Anders Sandberg "Whole Brain Emulation"

Benjamin Peterson is covering the Singularity Summit for Sentient Developments.

George covered neuroscientist Anders Sandberg's WBE (Whole Brain emulation) presentation during Convergence08. Anders is talking about the feasibility and paths to WBE.

"Whole Brain Emulation: feasibility, timescales and key challenges. Humans as existence proof for intelligent systems (so it can be done.) Why whole brain emulation? Exercise in forecasting, well defined problem, little understanding of intelligence needed, if it occurs it will likely be big (philo, scientific, economic, existential implications)

In order to emulate a brain we're going to need greater scanning capability:

• need enough resolution - rough consensus 5x5x50 nm resolution scanning

• need enough information

• need enough volume

• likely destructive" :[

Anders distinguishes WBE from mind-uploading ... maybe the wiki is misinformed?

"The step from mouse to man is 20 years in terms of brain emulation. First scan or simulate then computer power gradual emergence of emulation."

Lights up, Anders fields questions from the audience.

Ben Peterson live blogging the Singularity Summit for Sentient Developments

Our man in the field Benjamin Peterson is in New York covering the Singularity Summit for Sentient Developments. Look for his posts throughout the weekend.