Brain downloads 'possible by 2050'

[neildmitchell]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/05/23/brain.download/index.html

London, England -- By the middle of the 21st century it will be possible to download your brain to a supercomputer, according to a leading thinker on the future.

I can see it now, millions of loyal .mac users using iSync to backup their brains

 

[PlaceofDis]

this isnt going to happen in 45 years. sure the technology will be around, but it won't be widespread or used as much as it could/will be in maybe 100 or so years

 

[Daveway]

Hmmmmm..... Will it have a good User Interface?

BS Alert!

 

[wordmunger]

I'm not sure I buy it. This is making a tremendous number of assumptions about the "progress" of technology. Think about it -- Steve said we'd have 3 GHz G5s a year ago, and we still don't have them. Now extend that sort of prediction out 45 years and think about the number of things that have to go perfectly right in order to accomplish such a task.

I think the biggest problem might be the actual "download." How do you know you've really "got" everything. Even if you did, what good would it do? If my "consciousness" is transferred to a computer, what happens to my physical body? Won't I still die, just the same? Sure, the computer might have a consciousness, and it might have a copy of all my memories, but what good does that do me?

 

[cube]

That's a brain upload, not a download.

 

[PlaceofDis]

From Article:

Pearson also predicted that it would be possible to build a fully conscious computer with superhuman levels of intelligence as early as 2020.

IBM's BlueGene computer can already perform 70.72 trillion calculations a second and Pearson said the next computing goal was to replicate consciousness.

"We're already looking at how you might structure a computer that could become conscious. Consciousness is just another sense, effectively, and that's what we're trying to design in computer."

Pearson said that computer consciousness would make feasible a whole new sphere of emotional machines, such as airplanes that are afraid of crashing.

By 2020 Pearson also predicted the creation of a "virtual world" of immersive computer-generated environments in which we will spend increasing amounts of time, socializing and doing business.

Okay, so this guy is making some sensationalist claims. replicating consiousness is not going to happen in 15 years. we can have AI by then thats for sure, but not to the scale of where it is on par with our own consciousness. this seems to be a bit far fetched to me after a closer look. haven't people been preaching a 'virtual world' since the first major computer, and then revived it with the internet, its a long time coming thats for sure

 

[Daveway]

Anyone remember articles from the '60s with claims like, "in the year 2000 there will be flying cars and robots cooking dinner."

This is what this feels like. This guy is just trying to get attention like a Ms. Cleo or something like that.

Who in their right mind would want their brain on a computer for everyone to see. I know I don't want people to see my memories and thoughts.

It is IMPOSSIBLE by any means for memories and such in the brain to be converted into something that can be read on a computer. I can't believe anyone would actually give this person attention to his rediculous claims.

 

[andiwm2003]

I can't believe anyone would actually give this person attention to his rediculous claims.

well, seems we do.

andi


p.s.: the claims are totally ridiculous. i hope he writes a book and makes tons of money.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

ah, downloads are fine and you could install them into your computer and they'd do all your work for you in a fraction of the time.

But what would be really cool would be brain *uploads*.........

D

 

[yellow]

Neural Nanotics. Sweet.

 

[feakbeak]

I think this just a "marketing" way of saying the amount of bandwidth available to us in 2050 will be huge. I'll buy that as feasible. Interfacing with the human brain to extract all useful information, I don't think we'll see that any time soon. The human brain does not store information in formats anything even closely resembling that to how computers store data. For memories our brains store bits and pieces of information and we reassemble it later on. This is analogous to compression algorithms on computers. The big problem is our compression and decompression algorithms are not very accurate like they are in the digital world.

 

[emw]

But what would be really cool would be brain *uploads*.........

D

That was my first thought when I saw this - a la The Matrix. Can you imagine, you're going on a trip to Brazil but don't speak Brazilian Portuguese, so you upload the language to your brain. Sweet.

That and I could finally get my parents to understand how to use their answering machine.

 

[emw]

Pearson said that computer consciousness would make feasible a whole new sphere of emotional machines, such as airplanes that are afraid of crashing.

Wouldn't that also make them afraid of flying? I already have enough trouble traveling with flight cancellations due to weather. I don't need planes deciding they "just don't feel right about taking off today."

 

[leekohler]

Damn! I was hoping this meant you'd be able to download info INTO your brain! That's what I want for Christmas.

 

[eva01]

so i can finally become the cyborg i have always dreamed of??? YAY

 

[SpaceMagic]

Do conscious computers get equal rights to humans? What a dilema.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

Do conscious computers get equal rights to humans? What a dilema.

And think how much it would be compounded by putting the electronic brain in a robot

D

 

[fitinferno]

Damn! I was hoping this meant you'd be able to download info INTO your brain! That's what I want for Christmas.

Ahhh...the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind...

 

[technocoy]

hmm...

yes there are lots of things that were predicted and never happened, but that doesn't mean they aren't possible. we could very easily be flying around today had the interest an focus in travel been on that. if you had shown a photo and a desrcription of your mac and os x 50 years ago, they would have laughed you off the planet...

or if you had told them that you would have a map of the genome and be able to clone animals and grow human body parts on the skin of other animals (ears on mice) etc...

don't underestimate human ingenuity. more often than not, human fears, sociality, politics, and religion stop major advances in science, not the ability or the technology itself.

the thrust vectoring on the YF-22 was developed over 15 years ago and was just now made public as the latest advance in jet fighters...

better yet, imagine showing someone from 50 years ago the PS3 or an AIBO, or the Honda Robot.....

 

[Xtremehkr]

Considering how much space an iPod will have by then, I may have a use for some of it.

 

[gangst]

I also doubt this severly. I don't think that in 45 years there will be any computer possibly even supercomputer which will be able to compete with the brain. At the moment the average home computer is works at around 100million instructions a second, the human brain works at roughly 10 quadrillion instructions per second, even if computers develop at Moore's law speed they still won't be nowhere near as fast as the human brain, nor will be the worlds supercomputers. I think it would be impossible for a computer to interpret all of the information on the brain and store it accordingly.I think there will be several hundreds of years possibly thousands of years until the brain can be challenged for speed, also the amount of storage needed to store the info on the brain would need to be huge. I highly doubt these ideas of brain uploads.

 

[redeye be]

I'd be happy with a simple wired bioport right behind my ear.
I'll use my own brain thx.

"I know kung-fu"

 

[-Jeff]

B.S.

"The new PlayStation is one percent as powerful as the human brain," Pearson told the Observer. "

Whatever. How are they measuring "power", and whose brain are they talking about?

 

[wide]

he's the "head futurologist"...never heard that one before.

(yeah, i know it's a word and it means something, but isn't it weird that a telecom would have a futurology unit?)

on the bright side, that article reminded me of the talking celebrities' heads on Futurama.

 

[Flying Llama]

This has already been developped in area 51 and they are testing it, i work there.

Oops i wasnt supposed to say that... dont tell anyone, promise?