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Computational neuroscience is a field of neuroscience that deals with the information processing abilities of the brain. If you think of the brain as a computer, then the neuron is the individual functional processing unit. As a human brain contains somewhere around 100 billion neurons, you can see how identifying how these neurons process and transmit information is an important goal.

What, then, happens after we map out how all 100 billion neurons connect and how they fire action potentials? Can we create an artificial human brain? What if we could make an exact replica of our minds in a computer? Would it still represent our mind, or would it be an entirely new entity? Might be the closest thing we have to immortality.

Surprisingly, these questions aren't actually that far off in the future. Given the current rate of increase in computer power, some predict we will have computers powerful enough to simulate 100 billion neurons by 2030 or 2040 (see the wikipedia article on mind uploading). Additionally, a European project called the Blue Brain Project has already started to attempt to recreate simple mammalian neural networks, with the eventual goal of recreating a mammalian brain.

http://bluebrain.epfl.ch/ The Blue Brain Project

So what do you think? If it came time, would you upload yourself? What if only rich people could afford to do it?

This is an interesting thought. While I think that we will make better Artificial Intelligence by copying our mental processes, it is not likely that we will have the ability to become fully tech cyborg for a while. And thus, until we have fully functional robotics, placing a mind into a computer would not be advisable. There are two ways to go about this: Copy while alive and copy into death. Both have the same result, a new person.

I think that one major issue that applies to both is that people neglect is that the mind is a continuously changing as it records and processes new information. Even old or repeated experiences affect the brain. I think our society has been mystified by science fiction. Whenever we see people living on through clones or becoming a computer, we think that the person has literally transferred their essence to that medium. In my opinion, the truth is that if you copy and paste your neural patterns, as the wiki article suggests, into a computer, then the computer will only have an imprint of that person. Your personal existence will remain separate from the computer. The energy that makes you is in your head. The computer would be like a perfect mirror. Also, would the computer have the ability to record and process stimuli? If so, then without a robotic body that allows it to move, it would be like locking yourself in a room, or better yet a coffin. It would be limited to the experiences that enter its space. Likewise, we experience things with our physical body. If you placed your mind into a computer, there would be a lot of neuronal processors with nothing to do as it would have no arms, legs eyes?.etc. Even if you cover the major parts of the body, the minor parts such as the sympathetic responses and the small muscle movements that we don?t control would have nowhere to express themselves. If we assume that these components would be able to be reassigned usage, then the brain we create would be inherently more intelligent, or at least process faster, than the original person. This would allow it to evolve faster. Also, Humans do not turn off. When we sleep, we are still burning chemicals and creating action potentials in our minds. We dream. While not perfectly understood, dreaming helps people understand things that they would not otherwise connect. It gives artists inspiration and some scientist claim that they had major breakthroughs while sleeping. A computer would have no need for sleep. Likewise, a computer requires a constant power source. If you turned off, or there was a power outage, the computer which houses a mind, would that be like killing it for a short time. How would it feel when you turned it back on? Would it feel? These questions and observations are all with the implication that the computer is input/output and not just a mirror that thinks as you do only from that imprint.

The brain may be made of 100 billion micro processors but those processors are 'programmed' in a way that I do not think we fully understand yet. I think that in order for humans are comfortable with mind uploading; it would have to be a pure transfer for it not to be considered creation. I personally would not do it because to me it would be like dying and leaving a part of me around as opposed to living on. Unless it was truly just changing vessels and not a copy-paste function, I do not think it would be worth it. The only exception would be if I were researching something important and did not have time to finish, then the computer would retain all I have learned and hopefully go on to finish the work. I would also hope that it would not be limited to the rich due to the fact that they tend to have different values overall and it could lead to a world where the same, unchanged people could rule the world. Though that thought leads me to question how many rights would these cyber people have? Could a rich person leave his fortune to his computer self? Would they have equal rights?

Also, I apologize for this having been such a long post. This is not the first time I have thought about this idea.

So... I don't really know think about this. Even though I feel that the biologically it might make a functioning brain, I still feel that there would somehow be an aspect of the mind missing. We really haven't talked about the actual "mind" functioning in class, which might be why I am hesitant to think that it would work as a human (because of my lack of knowledge). I certainly would understand the ability of a computer to run the central nervous system, keep a body running, and send motor impulses. For some reason (I certainly don't have a scientific one), I don't think that the computer would be able to reason the same way, or have that "mind" aspect that seems somehow elusive.

So... I don't really know think about this. Even though I feel that the biologically it might make a functioning brain, I still feel that there would somehow be an aspect of the mind missing. We really haven't talked about the actual "mind" functioning in class, which might be why I am hesitant to think that it would work as a human (because of my lack of knowledge). I certainly would understand the ability of a computer to run the central nervous system, keep a body running, and send motor impulses. For some reason (I certainly don't have a scientific one), I don't think that the computer would be able to reason the same way, or have that "mind" aspect that seems somehow elusive.

I would have to agree with both previous posts. There is still so much on the horizon in neuroscience that the connections alone within the brain's neural networks may not be the only contributors in Cognitive function. There are current realizations of how robust Glial cells and their functioning actually are. Some suspect they may have a role in Information processing. How would this be imitated and emulated in a computer system? The blue brain project I believe is on the cusp of making huge advancements in this brain computer symbiosis. Their mapping of connections and 3D digitizations of neurons is the very beginning of this endeavor. I cannot begin to predict how promising it is but without a doubt we will gain a lot of useful and practical knowledge from these institutions. It will be key that there is collaboration among different disciplines. If somehow we can master all the nuances and determine all the functions of all the cells of the brain and imitate plasticity and give it sensual perception then we may be off to a good start. The next step would be to determine how this is translated into our behavior (speech, movement, attention, memory etc.). That last statement was obvious but how will we discover that this pattern of neural activity, in these spots in the brain, under these circumstances, will result in the computers ability to say hello to a stranger who walked into the lab and walked in front of its visual sensor. Its one thing to map the connections but even with every single cell in the brain made perfectly how will we know what this translates to in the functional sense. At this point it seems impossible, but if done uploading the mind would be the greatest achievement of mankind.