Mind Uploading Research Articles

Is Brain Emulation Dangerous?

Abstract Brain emulation is a hypothetical but extremely transformative technology which has a non-zero chance of appearing during the next century. This paper investigates whether such a technology would also have any predictable characteristics that give it a chance of being catastrophically dangerous, and whether there are any policy levers which might be used to make it safer. We conclude that the riskiness of brain emulation probably depends on the order of the preceding research trajectory. Broadly speaking, it appears safer for brain emulation to happen sooner, because slower CPUs would make the technology‘s impact more gradual. It may also be safer if brains are scanned before they are fully understood from a neuroscience perspective, thereby increasing the initial population of emulations, although this prediction is weaker and more scenario-dependent. The risks posed by brain emulation also seem strongly connected to questions about the balance of power between attackers and defenders in computer security contests. If economic property rights in CPU cycles1 are essentially enforceable, emulation appears to be comparatively safe; if CPU cycles are ultimately easy to steal, the appearance of brain emulation is more likely to be a destabilizing development for human geopolitics. Furthermore, if the computers used to run emulations can be kept secure, then it appears that making brain emulation technologies ―open‖ would make them safer. If, however, computer insecurity is deep and unavoidable, openness may actually be more dangerous. We point to some arguments that suggest the former may be true, tentatively implying that it would be good policy to work towards brain emulation using open scientific methodology and free/open source software codebases

The Prospects of Whole Brain Emulation within the next Half- Century

Abstract Whole Brain Emulation (WBE), the theoretical technology of modeling a human brain in its entirety on a computer-thoughts, feelings, memories, and skills intact-is a staple of science fiction. Recently, proponents of WBE have suggested that it will be realized in the next few decades. In this paper, we investigate the plausibility of WBE being developed in the next 50 years (by 2063). We identify four essential requisite technologies: scanning the brain, translating the scan into a model, running the model on a computer, and simulating an environment and body. Additionally, we consider the cultural and social effects of WBE. We find the two most uncertain factors for WBE’s future to be the development of advanced miniscule probes that can amass neural data in vivo and the degree to which the culture surrounding WBE becomes cooperative or competitive. We identify four plausible scenarios from these uncertainties and suggest the most likely scenario to be one in which WBE is realized, and the technology is used for moderately cooperative ends

Will We Hit a Wall? Forecasting Bottlenecks to Whole Brain Emulation Development

Abstract Whole brain emulation (WBE) is the possible replication of human brain dynamics that reproduces human behavior. If created, WBE would have significant impact on human society, and forecasts frequently place WBE as arriving within a century. However, WBE would be a complex technology with a complex network of prerequisite technologies. Most forecasts only consider a fraction of this technology network. The unconsidered portions of the network may contain bottlenecks, which are slowly-developing technologies that would impede the development of WBE. Here I describe how bottlenecks in the network can be non-obvious, and the merits of identifying them early. I show that bottlenecks may be predicted even with noisy forecasts. Accurate forecasts of WBE development must incorporate potential bottlenecks, which can be found using detailed descriptions of the WBE technology network. Bottlenecks identification can also increase the impact of WBE researchers by directing effort to those technologies that will immediately affect the timeline of WBE development

Editorial: Whole Brain Emulation seeks to Implement a Mind and its General Intelligence through System Identification

Sciendo provides publishing services and solutions to academic and professional organizations and individual authors. We publish journals, books, conference proceedings and a variety of other publications.

AVAILABLE TOOLS FOR WHOLE BRAIN EMULATION

Whole brain emulation (WBE) has been, for a long time, the subject of interest for many science fiction productions and a subject for debate for many philosophers. This is one of the reasons why many mainstream scientists have remained skeptical about a scientifically sound approach to it. Whole brain emulation might be considered more complex than it actually is because of all the philosophical and methodological issues that people have been pointing out in the last decade. However, not everything that every brain and computer scientist had ever said needs to be taken into account when designing a realistic brain emulation system. In this paper I would like to give a brief overview of the relevant research for WBE coming from the neurosciences and how it can be combined with other disciplines in order to achieve the goals of WBE.

WHEN SHOULD TWO MINDS BE CONSIDERED VERSIONS OF ONE ANOTHER?

What does it mean for one mind to be a different version of another one, or a natural continuation of another one? Or put differently: when can two minds sensibly be considered versions of one another? This question occurs in relation to mind uploading, where one wants to be able to assess whether an approximate upload constitutes a genuine continuation of the uploaded mind or not. It also occurs in the context of the rapid mental growth that is likely to follow mind uploading, at least in some cases — here the question is, when is growth so rapid or discontinuous as to cause the new state of the mind to no longer be sensibly considerable as a continuation of the previous one? Provisional answers to these questions are sketched, using mathematical tools drawn from category theory and probability theory. It is argued that if a mind's growth is approximately smooth, in a certain sense, then there will be continuity of self and the mind will have a rough comprehension of its growth and change process as it occurs. The treatment is somewhat abstract, and intended to point a direction for ongoing research rather than as a definitive practical solution. These ideas may have practical value in future, however, for those whose values favor neither strict self-preservation nor unrestricted growth, but rather growth that is constrained to be at least quasi-comprehensible to the minds doing the growing.

Brain, Time, Consciousness and Mind Uploading

Brain, Time, Consciousness and Mind Uploading

FUNDAMENTALS OF WHOLE BRAIN EMULATION: STATE, TRANSITION AND UPDATE REPRESENTATIONS

Whole brain emulation aims to re-implement functions of a mind in another computational substrate with the precision needed to predict the natural development of active states in as much as the influence of random processes allows. Furthermore, brain emulation does not present a possible model of a function, but rather presents the actual implementation of that function, based on the details of the circuitry of a specific brain. We introduce a notation for the representations of mind state, mind transition functions and transition update functions, for which elements and their relations must be quantified in accordance with measurements in the biological substrate. To discover the limits of significance in terms of the temporal and spatial resolution of measurements, we point out the importance of brain region and task specific constraints, as well as the importance of in-vivo measurements. We summarize further problems that need to be addressed.

COALESCING MINDS: BRAIN UPLOADING-RELATED GROUP MIND SCENARIOS

We present a hypothetical process of mind coalescence, where artificial connections are created between two or more brains. This might simply allow for an improved form of communication. At the other extreme, it might merge the minds into one in a process that can be thought of as a reverse split-brain operation. We propose that one way mind coalescence might happen is via an exocortex, a prosthetic extension of the biological brain which integrates with the brain as seamlessly as parts of the biological brain integrate with each other. An exocortex may also prove to be the easiest route for mind uploading, as a person's personality gradually moves away from the aging biological brain onto the exocortex. Memories might also be copied and shared even without minds being permanently merged. Over time, the borders of personal identity may become loose or even unnecessary.

EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH IN WHOLE BRAIN EMULATION: THE NEED FOR INNOVATIVEIN VIVOMEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES

Whole brain emulation aims to re-implement functions of a mind in another computational substrate by carefully emulating the function of fundamental components, and by copying the connectivity between those components. The precision with which this is done must enable prediction of the natural development of active states. To accomplish this, in vivo measurements at large scale and high resolution are critically important. We propose a set of requirements for these empirical measurements. We then outline general methods leading to acquisition of a structural and functional connectome, and to the characterization of responses at large scale and high resolution. Finally, we describe two new project developments that tackle the problem of functional recording in vivo, namely the molecular ticker-tape and the integrated-circuit Cyborcell.

Mind Uploading and Resurrection of Human Consciousness. Place for Science?

Brain trauma often affects memories, perceptions and many other cognitive functions which all together form human mind. Modern medicine tries to provide technologies which can heal damaged brain and recover stream of consciousness. In this paper, I performed simulation experiment to analyze hypothetical process of mind recovery through uploading to an artificial environment. Neuroprosthesis, brain-computer interface or brain transplant might be the candidates for such migration. A term- “Mind uploading” was introduced to define process where core vital functions migrate from the human brain to an artificial environment. To simulate the process, I suggest a topological approach which is based on a formalism of information geometry. Geometrical formalism let me simulate a simple toy mind as geometrical structures. Also, it gives powerful geometrical and topological methods for analysis of the information flows in arbitrary complex system. The approach leads me to insight of using holographic analogy for the mind migration to an artificial environment. The concept of holography is well known in optics where localized 3D shape can be recorded and later reconstructed by 2D dimensional hologram. I am using that analogy to represents the toy mind functions as a geometrical shape on information manifold. Distributed holographic representation can be created for such shape. Then holographic reconstruction process provides an algorithm to reconstruct original system. Thus the migration from original to an artificial environment and back can be seen as a holography on information manifold. Interactions between brain and an artificial environment are modeled as an entropy flow which is defined as a geometrical flow on information manifold. Such flow is an analogy of holography recording for the toy mind. The opposite process of holography reconstruction is modeled by none-local Hamiltonians defined on information manifold. The simulated process illustrate a way to restore stream of consciousness which is lost due to brain damage, degeneration or decay. At the same, the simulation demonstrated that certain physical limitations will constraint such migration.