Whole brain emulation (WBE) or mind uploading (sometimes called "mind copying" or "mind transfer") refers to the hypothetical process of copying the totality or considerable majority of mental contents (or consciousness) from a particular brain and transferring it to another storage medium (substrate-independent mind (SIM)), most commonly an engineered substrate that is digital, analogue, or quantum-based. The aim is to replicate the functions of neurophysiology and the structure of neuroanatomy that determines the interactions of basic components. Underlying the notion of mind uploading is the broad philosophy that consciousness lies within the brain, and can, in principle, be separated from the brain and re-implemented into a different physical form. This is not to deny that minds are richly adapted to their substrates, but rather to assert that mind is in essence about patterns of organization and behavior, and that the same patterns of organization and behavior can be realized via multiple different substrates.The focus of mind uploading is on data acquisition, rather than data maintenance of the brain. Mind uploading may essentially provide a permanent backup to our "mind-file". Given that the electrochemical signals that brains use to achieve thought travel at one hundred meters per second, while the electronic signals in computers are sent at three hundred million meters per second, this means that an electronic counterpart of a human biological brain might be able to think thousands to millions of times faster than our naturally evolved systems. As such, mind uploading might provide the mind a tremendous improvement in computational capacity.
Mind uploading could be accomplished by scanning and mapping a biological brain in detail, and then by copying and storing the information and computational processes of the brain into a computer system or another computational device. The computer could then run a simulation model of the conscious mind, such that it behaves in essentially the same way as the original brain (i.e., indistinguishable from the brain for all relevant purposes). A set of approaches known as Loosely-Coupled Off-Loading (LCOL) may be used in the attempt to characterize and copy the mental contents of a brain. The LCOL approach may take advantage of self-reports, life-logs and video recordings that can be analyzed by artificial intelligence. A bottom-up approach may focus on the specific resolution and morphology of neurons, the spike times of neurons, the times at which neurons produce action potential responses. [1] The simulated mind could be within a virtual reality or simulated world, supported by an anatomic 3D body simulation model. Alternatively, the simulated mind could reside in a computer that's inside (or connected to) a humanoid robot or a biological body.
Whole brain emulation is discussed by some futurists as a "logical endpoint"[1] of the topical computational neuroscience and neuroinformatics fields, both about brain simulation for medical research purposes. It is discussed in artificial intelligence research publications[2] as an approach to strong AI. Among some futurists and within the transhumanist movement it is an important proposed life extension technology, originally suggested in biomedical literature in 1971.[3] It is a central conceptual feature of numerous science fiction novels and films.
Mainstream scientists, potential research funders and scientific journals presently remain skeptical of the feasibility of mind uploading. Although, in recent years, an increasingly large community of serious mind uploading researchers has emerged, taking this seemingly science-fictional notion seriously and pursuing it via experimental and theoretical research programs. According to these supporters, many of the tools and ideas needed to achieve mind uploading already exist or are currently under active development; however, they will admit that others are as yet very speculative but still in the realm of engineering possibility. Neuroscientist Randal Koene has formed a nonprofit organization called Carbon Copies to promote mind uploading research. Mind uploading research is dramatically cross-disciplinary, involving domains including brain imaging, computer science, neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence, nanotechnology, genomics and biotechnology, psychology, philosophy, and consciousness studies. Substantial mainstream research in related areas is being conducted to develop faster super computers, virtual reality, brain-computer interfaces, animal brain mapping and simulation, connectomics and information extraction from dynamically functioning brains.[4]
Critics of mind uploading as a means of life extension often dismiss it as wishful thinking, claiming that even an exact copy of oneself would constitute an entirely independent (different) entity, whose (identical) sentiments (joy, pain) are virtually irrelevant to the original, by any egoistical definition.[citation needed] The question whether an emulated brain can be a human mind is debated by philosophers.
The human brain contains about 85 billion nerve cells called neurons, each individually linked to other neurons by way of connectors called axons and dendrites. Signals at the junctures (synapses) of these connections are transmitted by the release and detection of chemicals known as neurotransmitters. The established neuroscientific consensus is that the human mind is largely an emergent property of the information processing of this neural network.
Importantly, neuroscientists have stated that important functions performed by the mind, such as learning, memory, and consciousness, are due to purely physical and electrochemical processes in the brain and are governed by applicable laws. For example, Christof Koch and Giulio Tononi wrote in IEEE Spectrum:
"Consciousness is part of the natural world. It depends, we believe, only on mathematics and logic and on the imperfectly known laws of physics, chemistry, and biology; it does not arise from some magical or otherworldly quality."[5]
The concept of mind uploading is based on this mechanistic view of the mind, and denies the vitalist view of human life and consciousness.
Eminent computer scientists and neuroscientists have predicted that specially programmed computers will be capable of thought and even attain consciousness, including Koch and Tononi,[5]Douglas Hofstadter,[6]Jeff Hawkins,[6]Marvin Minsky,[7]Randal A. Koene,[8] and Rodolfo Llinas.[9]
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