{"id":6729,"date":"2013-03-04T03:42:58","date_gmt":"2013-03-04T11:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/?p=6729"},"modified":"2017-04-29T15:46:22","modified_gmt":"2017-04-29T22:46:22","slug":"human-brain-mapping-simulation-projects-america-wants-some-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/human-brain-mapping-simulation-projects-america-wants-some-too","title":{"rendered":"Human Brain Mapping & Simulation Projects: America Wants Some, Too?"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nThe Brain Games Begin<\/span>
\n<\/strong>Europe\u2019s billion-Euro science-neuro Human Brain Project, mentioned here amongst machine morality<\/a> last week, is basically already funded and well underway. Now the colonies over in the new world are getting hip, and they too have in the works a project to map\/simulate\/make their very own copy of the universe\u2019s greatest known computational artifact: the gelatinous wad of convoluted electrical pudding in your skull.<\/p>\n

The (speculated but not yet public) Brain Activity Map of America<\/strong><\/span>
About 300 different news sources are reporting that a Brain Activity Map<\/em> project is outlined in the current administration\u2019s to-be-presented budget, and will be detailed sometime in March. Hoards of journalists are calling it \u201cObama\u2019s Brain Project,<\/em>\u201d which is stoopid, and probably only because some guy at the New Yorker did and they all decided that\u2019s what they had to do, too. Or somesuch lameness. Or laziness? Deference? SEO?<\/p>\n

For reasons both economic and nationalistic, America could definitely use an inspirational, large-scale scientific project right about now. Because seriously, aside from going full-Pavlov over the next iPhone<\/a>, what do we really have to look forward to these days? Now, if some technotards or bible pounders monkeywrench the deal, the U.S. is going to continue that slide toward scientific\u2026 lesserness. So, hippies, religious nuts, and all you little sociopathic babies in politics: zip it<\/strong>. Perhaps, however, we should gently poke and prod the hard of thinking toward a marginally heightened Europhobia \u2014 that way they\u2019ll support the project. And it\u2019s worth it. Just, you know, for science.<\/p>\n

Going Big. Not Huge, But Big. But Could be Massive.<\/strong><\/span>
Both the Euro and American flavors are no Manhattan Project-scale undertaking, in the sense of urgency and motivational factors, but more like the Human Genome Project<\/a>. Still, with clear directives and similar funding levels (\u20ac1 billion Euros & $1\u20133 billion US bucks, respectively), they\u2019re quite ambitious and potentially far more world changing than a big bomb. Like, seriously, man. Because brains build bombs. But hopefully an artificial brain would not. Spaceships would be nice, though.<\/p>\n

Practically, these projects are expected to expand our understanding of the actual physical loci of human behavioral patterns, get to the bottom of various brain pathologies, stimulate the creation of more advanced AI\/non-biological intelligence \u2014 and, of course, the big enchilada: help us understand more about our own species\u2019 consciousness.<\/p>\n

On Consciousness: My Simulated Brain has an Attitude?<\/strong><\/span>
Yes, of course it\u2019s wild speculation to guess at the feelings and worries and conundrums of a simulated brain \u2014 but dude, what if, what if<\/em> one or both of these brain simulation map thingys is done well enough that it shows signs of spontaneous, autonomous reaction? What if it tries to like, you know, do something awesome like self-reorganize, or evolve or something?<\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s too early to talk personality, but you kinda have to wonder\u2026 would the Euro-Brain be smug, never stop claiming superior education yet voraciously consume American culture, and perhaps cultivate a mild racism? Would the \u2018Merica-Brain have a nation-scale authority complex, unjustifiable confidence & optimism, still believe in childish romantic love, and overuse the words \u201cdude\u201d and \u201cawesome?\u201d<\/p>\n

We shall see. We shall see.<\/p>\n

Oh yeah, have to ask:<\/strong><\/span>
Anyone going to follow Ray Kurzweil\u2019s recipe<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Project info:<\/strong><\/span>
[HUMAN BRAIN PROJECT - \u20ac<\/strong> - MAIN SITE<\/a>]
[THE BRAIN ACTIVITY MAP - $<\/strong> - HUFF-PO<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Kinda Pretty Much Related:<\/strong><\/span>
[BLUE BRAIN PROJECT<\/a>]<\/p>\n

This piece originally appeared at Anthrobotic.com<\/a><\/a> on February 28, 2013.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Brain Games Begin Europe\u2019s billion-Euro science-neuro Human Brain Project, mentioned here amongst machine morality last week, is basically already funded and well underway. Now the colonies over in the new world are getting hip, and they too have in the works a project to map\/simulate\/make their very own copy of the universe\u2019s greatest known [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":231,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11,40,30,12,386,47,225,6,64,44],"tags":[99,1217,1218,376,1219,1229,1230,1184,1231,222],"class_list":["post-6729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biological","category-biotech-medical","category-complex-systems","category-ethics","category-existential-risks","category-homo-sapiens","category-neuroscience","category-philosophy","category-robotics-ai","category-singularity","category-supercomputing","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-brain","tag-consciousness","tag-existential-quandary-stuff","tag-ibm","tag-neurology","tag-pure-science","tag-super-computer","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/231"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6729"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57044,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6729\/revisions\/57044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}