Volume 1, Issue 4 
4th Quarter, 2006


Scope and Resolution in Neural Prosthetics and Special Concerns for the Emulation of a Whole Brain

Randal Koene, Ph.D.

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To illustrate the complexity of the biological substrate, Dr. Henry Markram of the IBM-sponsored Blue Brain Project in Switzerland Koene Calloutwas kind enough to provide several images of dye injected neurons in the neocortical microcircuit.[1] The neo cortex consists of vast numbers of similarly interconnected columnar neural structures, also known as mini columns. Each column contains up to 10,000 neurons and has a width of about 500 microns. 

Image 3 shows two different stains of the parameter cells of the microcircuit.

Koene
Image 3: Whole Brain Emulation: The Blue Brain Project

On the left, the forest of dendritic and axonal fibers is emphasized, and on the right, the cell bodies. The left-hand image shows three parameter neurons superimposed on an infrared image of the microcircuit. On the right, you see the inhibitory fibers of interneurons indicated in blue, wrapping around the excitatory fibers in red of pyramidal neurons. Their inhibitory activity can then control activity in the system, preventing epilepsy. 

While there is a common structure, the details of these complex circuits differ from column to column within an individual and between individual brains. This brings us to the subtle yet important difference between emulation and simulation.

I generated a simulation that simulates the development of the morphology of neural fiber based on growth models for a project in the Netherlands that investigates the emergence of characteristic stages of spatial temporal patterns of activity as neural networks develop. The simulation rotated to show how the fibers in two layers of the main column develop and grow toward each other in the first seven days of development. Generally, simulations in neuroscience attempt to explore constrained sets of effects and interactions that resemble a subset observed in biology. When I say emulation, I specifically mean the intention to achieve function equal to that of the original and individual brain.

That brings us to the third related objective, mind uploading. Mind uploading is the transition of information expressing functions and experiences of a specific human mind to whole brain emulation in another substrate. How is whole brain emulation a predictable outcome of neuroscience? 

First of all, note that science, neuroscience and whole brain emulation are based on the same fundamental premise. That premise is that the scientific study of nature, including the human brain, is useful. In science, we can make models of reality by creating theorems and laws often expressed through applicable equations. In other words, because science governs nature and the brain, it is possible to make its detailed workings comprehensible.

The utility of the scientific approach has been vindicated in prior pursuits. As an example, I could pick the application of Sir Isaac Newton’s Law of Gravity in the design of space probes, such as Voyager One. There are some predictable outcomes of applied neuroscience. As neuroscience enables us to understand how the human brain produces intelligence, it will inevitably be possible to create artificial implementations that exhibit intelligence at least equal to our intelligence. 

Koene
Image 4: A Goal of Neuroscience

In general, the ability to directly manipulate such technology will accelerate the increase of intelligent capabilities previously enhanced solely through natural selection. This may lead to a significant change of the human perspective, as well as the social order with regards to the standing and long-term prospects of Homo sapiens. 

In fact, this possibility has in some way or other been predicted since the scientific revolution in the Renaissance. As an example of such thinking, we have the robot sketches by Leonardo Da Vinci and we have such oddities as the hoax by von Kempelen, called the Turk.[1,2] While a human operator was responsible for the chess playing feats of von Kempelen’s supposed automaton, note that the hoax itself required the belief by both the perpetrator and the audience that such a feat was possible.

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Footnotes
1. The Blue Brain Project is a joint venture between IBM and The Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), which will work together using the huge computational capacity of IBM’s eServer Blue Gene supercomputer to create a detailed model of the circuitry in the neocortex – the largest and most complex part of the human brain. By expanding the project to model other areas of the brain, scientists hope to eventually build an accurate, computer-based model of the entire brain.
October 29, 2006 3:19PM EST (back to top)

2. Leonardo Da Vinci’s Robot Sketches on Wikipedia. October 25, 2006 3:27PM EST (back to top)

3. Von Kempelen’s hoax (Turk) on Wikipedia. October 25, 2006 3:32PM EST (back to top)

 

 

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