Slashdot Mirror
MIT Severs Ties To Company Promoting Fatal Brain Uploading (technologyreview.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: The MIT Media Lab will sever ties with a brain-embalming company that promoted euthanasia to people hoping for digital immortality through "brain uploads." The startup, called Nectome, had raised more than $200,000 in deposits from people hoping to have their brains stored in an end-of-life procedure similar to physician-assisted suicide. MIT's connection to the company came into question after MIT Technology Review detailed Nectome's promotion of its "100 percent fatal" technology. Under a subcontract, MIT was receiving approximately $300,000 from a federal grant won by Nectome to develop methods of brain preservation and analysis. According to an April 2 statement, MIT will terminate the research contract with Media Lab professor and neuroscientist Edward Boyden. Boyden said he didn't have a financial stake or other personal involvement with Nectome. MIT's connection to the company drew sharp criticism from some neuroscientists, who say brain uploading isn't possible.
The summary reads "MIT will terminate the research contract with Media Lab professor and neuroscientist Edward Boyden."
This statement is false. If you read the article, you will see the following statement: "Professor Boyden has no personal affiliation -- financial, operational, or contractual -- with the company Nectome."
Boyden's adviser, Deisseroth, developed CLARITY. One part of Boyden's ressearch, among many other things, involves using his adviser's CLARITY method to perform imaging of neurobiological samples (that is, expansion microscopy.)
What the article DOES say is "MIT is party to a subcontract under an NIMH small business grant awarded to Nectome, with the Boyden group working on an academic research project to combine aspects of Nectome's chemistry with the Boyden group's invention, expansion microscopy," What this means is that someone on Boyden's team was doing research with Nectome's chemistry along with Boyden's expansion microscopy method.
Therefore, the correct summary is, "MIT will terminate the research contract with Nectome." full stop.
These are respectable researchers and I feel we have to make a strong effort to make sure the correct story is told.
Approach is wrong.
People want to make a fully identically functioning system that they can then replicate activity patterns on.
Instead, make use of the way the brain (and subsequently, the consciousness operating inside it) incorporates and induces activity on implanted devices.
Basically, stop with all this scanning shit. Instead, focus on a single, uniform platform that is well known and easy to simulate, then implant the patient with some implants that link the simulation with the still living organic brain. The organic brain will incorporate the functionality of the simulation. In short, go the ship of theseus route. As the brain begins to fail from either injury or old age, it will rely more and more on the simulation hardware, until eventually, it gives up. If you made the right connections, you will have valid activity in the simulation after the death of the organic component. Congrats, you have an upload.
This requires a very robust simulation platform though, which we do not currently have. DARPA is doing some interesting research on simulating neural columns, and the last I heard anything concrete was years ago, so if the project is still active, I can only assume they have gotten much better at their simulation. I understand that Chinese researchers are also working on simulating neuronal columns--
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... (Still, as interesting as these appear, they are noplace near mature enough to have attached to living humans as ancillary networks to support and replace function.)
Again, the issue of "Every organic brain is so vastly different, there is no way we can scan the physical networks for replication!" becomes less important, when you instead say "Let's build a generic, uniform simulation platform that we can then attach, and exploit neuroplasticity of the organic side for deep integration."