It's simply a matter of scaling this slice-scan-render technique up to the entirety of a human brain to simulate human thinking, correct? What're the biggest technological hurdles left?
A connectomic study of a petascale fragment of human cerebral cortex
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Re: A connectomic study of a petascale fragment of human cerebral cortex
#12Was this done for the first time? Is there any novel technology that enabled this? Why are these studies rare?
Re: A connectomic study of a petascale fragment of human cerebral cortex
#13There was a story I read once where general AI was unobtainable but computing power continued so simulations of brains was done via processing brain slices. So every AI was just a person who had died with an intact brain that could be preserved. Self driving cars were a thing but it was someone’s grandma.
if you can recall the author/title i’d love to look at it! i’m curious how the story deals with the disjointed sensory input in the “revived” agent. e.g. does Grandma experience sight/sound/touch/feel? if not, how does she cope with sudden full-body paralysis/numbness/loss-of-familiar-senses? did she agree to this, or know it was going to happen? and so on.
i remember one subplot to a Cory Doctorow book focused on a lab that was trying to develop a self-aware machine and the barrier there was that the machine would commit suicide as soon as it understood the broader context of its being. sort of makes me wonder that in order to achieve the sorts of AI you’re talking about, we need not just map the brain but also understand (or bruteforce) enough of it to avoid agent crises. the barrier to that could be larger than just developing a wholly new neural network (idk).
Re: A connectomic study of a petascale fragment of human cerebral cortex
#14It's simply a matter of scaling this slice-scan-render technique up to the entirety of a human brain to simulate human thinking, correct? What're the biggest technological hurdles left?
pretty much everything. Connectome != functional understanding of the brain. We have had c elegans ( worm) and more recently fly connectomes for years. we are still struggling to understand basic logic encodings in those animal models. Imho we lack a foundational understanding of the logic encoding mechanisms in the brain. Many neuroscientists/ computer scientists are working on this problem, but to my knowledge we are still not there.
Re: A connectomic study of a petascale fragment of human cerebral cortex
#15Perhaps someone has been reading Anders Sandberg[1]? 1. https://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/brain-emulation-roadmap-report.pdf
is there a more recent comprehensive report? the link above is from 2008.
Re: A connectomic study of a petascale fragment of human cerebral cortex
#16Perhaps someone has been reading Anders Sandberg[1]? 1. https://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/brain-emulation-roadmap-report.pdf
is there a more recent comprehensive report? the link above is from 2008.
I don't think so. He's published stuff with them since [1] but not on the same topic.
Re: A connectomic study of a petascale fragment of human cerebral cortex
#17It's simply a matter of scaling this slice-scan-render technique up to the entirety of a human brain to simulate human thinking, correct? What're the biggest technological hurdles left?
My understanding of this is that the connectome itself wouldn't be sufficient to simulate human thinking.
If I understand correctly the connectome would basically be a map of each neuron to its connections, somewhat like a wiring diagram. However, I've heard that it's more realistic to regard each neuron as being more like a computer rather than a wire. Neurons have a lot of state to be accounted for, for example methylated groups controlling the expression of DNA and the resulting amounts and types of various receptors which would influence their control.
Re: A connectomic study of a petascale fragment of human cerebral cortex
#18It's simply a matter of scaling this slice-scan-render technique up to the entirety of a human brain to simulate human thinking, correct? What're the biggest technological hurdles left?
Seems we can't yet simulate a 302 neuron worm brain (C. elegans) despite having its connectome, so not correct. https://wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenWorm
Re: A connectomic study of a petascale fragment of human cerebral cortex
#19It's simply a matter of scaling this slice-scan-render technique up to the entirety of a human brain to simulate human thinking, correct? What're the biggest technological hurdles left?
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Re: A connectomic study of a petascale fragment of human cerebral cortex
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
How is that different from general AI though?
General ai would be a unique mind. Simulation doesn't require engineers to understand the process, just that the process works. I can copy a mechanism without scientifically understanding what that mechanism is doing. I can follow a recipe or instructable or copy grandma's brain and have little to no understanding of what's really happening. Then again, if you can copy a genius researcher and put a million of the min…
But the inputs to the simulation are still artificial so I don’t see why it really matters.