Full Brain Emulation

 

An artificial neural network described as being "as big and as complex as half of a mouse brain" was run on an IBM blue gene supercomputer by a University of Nevada research team in 2007. A simulated time of one second took ten seconds of computer time. The researchers said they had seen "biologically consistent" nerve impulses flowed through the virtual cortex. However, the simulation lacked the structures seen in real mice brains, and they intend to improve the accuracy of the neuron model.[23]

Blue Brain is a project, launched in May 2005 by IBM and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, with the aim to create a computer simulation of a mammalian cortical column, down to the molecular level.[24] The project uses a supercomputer based on IBM's Blue Gene design to simulate the electrical behavior of neurons based upon their synaptic connectivity and complement of intrinsic membrane currents. The initial goal of the project, completed in December 2006,[25] was the simulation of a rat neocortical column, which can be considered the smallest functional unit of the neocortex (the part of the brain thought to be responsible for higher functions such as conscious thought), containing 10,000 neurons (and 108 synapses). Between 1995 and 2005, Henry Markram mapped the types of neurons and their connections in such a column. In November 2007,[26] the project reported the end of the first phase, delivering a data-driven process for creating, validating, and researching the neocortical column. The project seeks to eventually reveal aspects of human cognition and various psychiatric disorders caused by malfunctioning neurons, such as autism, and to understand how pharmacological agents affect network behavior.

An organization called the Brain Preservation Foundation was founded in 2010 and is offering a Brain Preservation Technology prize to promote exploration of brain preservation technology in service of humanity. The Prize, currently $106,000, will be awarded in two parts, 25% to the first international team to preserve a whole mouse brain, and 75% to the first team to preserve a whole large animal brain in a manner that could also be adopted for humans in a hospital or hospice setting immediately upon clinical death. Ultimately the goal of this prize is to generate a whole-brain map that may be used in support of separate efforts to upload and possibly 'reboot' a mind in virtual space

Bay Leaf finished the notecard she intended to send to Sophie inworld with the short snippet from wiki and cut it out of her word document. Lisa had come to her two years earlier after reading an article on The Blue brain project and told her that she wished to volunteer. "Had I only known", Bay Leaf said out loud, as she retrieved the external hard drive from her black leather case. She paused for a moment before plugging it into the side of her Laptop, stared at her own reflection in the black of her 17-inch screen, frowned at herself, then shoved the stick in.  "Now let's see what we can do about this unfriendly interface Soph".

HCI, (human-computer interface), is the bond between participant and world. In the form of mouse and keyboard, it is the way in which human consciousness transmits itself, but to an uploaded fully emulated human brain, it is absolutely useless. Bay Leaf was working on a Hud within a VW using augmented reality when she got the news that Lisa had passed away. The interface was never tested, and she wasn't even a hundred percent sure she could find the correct channel to speak with the consciousness, now known as the avatar Sophie Sautereau. In fact, Bay Leaf wasn't even sure if the person formally known as Lisa Prent, was in existence at all. Her mind raced through all the possibilities, as her desktop loaded and reflected in her glasses. Sophie could be little more than a virus at this point, a Trojan trying to latch itself into files within a computer.
"We uploaded them friggin mice, I know we uploaded her Goddammit!"
Bay Leaf clicked the log-in button on her Phoenix viewer and rezzed on The Second Life grid. It took her almost a full minute to get through all her notices and notecards before she saw that she had a communication IM waiting from Sophie Sautereau. She stopped breathing and nearly swallowed her own voice when she read it.
[2011/05/21 13:39] S0phie Sautereau: goddammit
[2011/05/21 13:39] S0phie Sautereau: God damm...
[2011/05/21 13:40] S0phie Sautereau: God...  damm...
[2011/05/21 13:40] S0phie Sautereau: it

Bay Leaf adjusted her glasses and dived for her cell phone, knocking over dam near everything on her desk.