“A man is alive as long as his memory lives,” the ancients said. Or while his own memory is still alive, scientists decided. Today when all attempts to prolong the life of the body, whether it be cloning or cryogenic freezing never succeeded, world scientific the community has finally found the “right direction of thought” turning to the human brain and the phenomenon of memory.
In October 2010, a well-known American specialist in the field of nanotechnology, futurologist and author of voice recognition technology Raymond Kurzweil said that the possibility of creating artificial the human brain exists now. And after 20 years, people begin to preserve their knowledge and memories, creating copies of their brain. Kurzweil’s bold statement reinforced a number of successful experiences researchers at the California Institute of Technology: them managed to discover a way to electronically record a person’s thoughts. Leaning to the theory that brain neuron activity is associated with specific objects or images, they conducted a series of experiments: volunteers were shown pictures that activated these cells.
A photo from open sources
Demonstrating a variety of patterns to experiment participants, scientists were able to isolate the neurons responsible for certain images and concepts, summarizing the indicators for each participant in the experiment in individual database. Watching how and in which sequences are activated by specific neurons, scientists got the opportunity to “read the minds” of volunteers. However claimed Kurzweil, the possibility of “copying” consciousness remained only bold statement. Scientists are faced with a problem: the human brain, which is not a stationary repository of information, but moving and developing mechanism, reacted differently to one and the same phenomena depending on the situation. As a result numerous studies to copy memory to scientists it took not a medium, but a computer processor identical in functioning with the brain, which to begin with would help to understand the purpose of each neuron and provide a model explaining how cells interacting with each other generate thoughts and feelings person. The work has begun.
The computer brain comes to life …
It is well known that neurons in different areas of the brain perform their functions. Researchers focused on visual area of the cerebral cortex, processing visual information. Using digital pictures, scientists found out which neuron responds to a particular visual stimulus, whether Inverted or too bright image.
Studying the same zone, experts acted on small sets of neurons alternately to see how and in which sequences interact with each other hundreds of cells visual area of the cerebral cortex. As a result, they were open the general scheme by which nerve cells connect, and the sequence in which they interact with each other. This method was used by scientists to recreate the basic human brain functions responsible for interacting with external environment (vision, hearing, smell, touch, speech) and mental activity (memory, learning, thinking).
Applying the method, neuroscientists from the University of Waterloo in Canada with the help of supercomputer SPAUN created the most complex and scale model of the human brain, taking into account its various functional departments. Researchers managed to imitate work 2.5 million neurons, reconstructing the prefrontal cortex (several areas of the frontal lobes), thalamus (area responsible for redistribution of information from the senses, with the exception of sense of smell, to the cerebral cortex), subcortical nuclei (complex neural nodes in the hemispheres), etc.
Information was entered through the electronic eye, visual the signals entered the visual zone, then to the thalamus, which distributed information on different parts of the cerebral cortex. In imitation human inherent limitations, such as inability to keep long sequences of numbers and letters and promptly “switch” from one action to another.
Size matters
As a result of research, absolute identity in methods and speeds of information processing between human brain and new computer intelligence. However “record” memories and reproduce them, as well as logically conceptualize the sequence of actions the artificial brain has not yet can. Scientists attribute this to an insufficient number of neurons, to create which requires a lot of computers. For example, American colleagues from IBM laboratory were able to simulate the work of the cortex of the middle cat. In order to recreate processes occurring between 1 billion neurons feline brain and 10 trillion of its synapses, scientists needed machine consisting of 147,450 processors and possessing 144 terabytes of RAM, which is approximately 100 thousands of personal computers. How many neurons are needed for in order to make this “brain” “reasonable”, scientists themselves do not know. Indeed, in many animals, unlike humans, nerve cells of the brain a thousand times less, but this is enough for normal functioning. But what about man? Time will tell.
“Eternal memory” and other perspectives
Creating a computer brain identical to the human is one of the priority tasks of modern science. Model will allow you to get a cure for brain diseases and slightly open some secrets of human consciousness. Other hopes lay on military project: creating an autonomous system of the human brain and its relationship with a double robot will save lives in chaos of battle or the epicenter of disasters.
After the success of neuroscientists at the University of Waterloo, she found a second Raymond Kurzweil’s breath and idea of preserving human memory. According to some scientists, the transfer of the mind to a more durable carrier possible after expanding the functional potential of the existing models. The “reverse engineering” method used in programming, “translates” the brain of a particular person – and together with him and consciousness taking into account individual biological and chemical processes – into an independent information system.
The success of the project will make it possible not only full duplication of human memory, but also the creation of an exact copy of consciousness with preservation of all habits, habits, way of thinking and other purely individual personality traits.
Moreover, such copies may be not one or two! And with death the brain of the “master” his own “I” will continue to live on electronic media, and possibly in virtual reality.
Sergey ALEKSEEV
A life
