Lifeboat Foundation

This two-day event invites leading researchers, entrepreneurs, and funders to drive progress. Explore new opportunities, form lasting collaborations, and joi…

Join Randal Koene, a computational neuroscientist, as he dives into the intricate world of whole brain emulation and mind uploading, while touching on the ethical pillars of AI. In this episode, Koene discusses the importance of equal access to AI, data ownership, and the ethical impact of AI development. He explains the potential future of AGI, how current social and political systems might influence it, and touches on the scientific and philosophical aspects of creating a substrate-independent mind. Koene also elaborates on the differences between human cognition and artificial neural networks, the challenge of translating brain structure to function, and efforts to accelerate neuroscience research through structured challenges.

00:00 Introduction to Randal Koene and Whole Brain Emulation.
00:39 Ethical Considerations in AI Development.
02:20 Challenges of Equal Access and Data Ownership.
03:40 Impact of AGI on Society and Development.
05:58 Understanding Mind Uploading.
06:39 Randall’s Journey into Computational Neuroscience.
08:14 Scientific and Philosophical Aspects of Substrate Independent Minds.
13:07 Brain Function and Memory Processes.
25:34 Whole Brain Emulation: Current Techniques and Challenges.
32:12 The Future of Neuroscience and AI Collaboration.

Continue reading “The Ethics, Challenges, and Future of Whole Brain Emulation & AGI | Deep Interview with Randal Koene” »

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to upload your mind to a computer? To have a digital copy of your personality, memories, and skills that could live on after your biological death? This is the idea behind whole brain emulation, a hypothetical process of scanning a brain and creating a software version of it that can run on any compatible hardware. In this video, we will explore the science and challenges of whole brain emulation, the ethical and social implications of creating digital minds, and the potential benefits and risks of this technology for humanity. Join us as we dive into the fascinating world of whole-brain emulation!
#wholebrainemulation.
#minduploading.
#digitalimmortality.
#artificialintelligence.
#neuroscience.
#braincomputerinterface.
#substrateindependentminds.
#transhumanism.
#futurism.
#mindcloning

Among the many ways neuroscientists think Alzheimer’s disease may strip away brain function is by disrupting the glucose metabolism needed to fuel the healthy brain. In essence, declining metabolism robs the brain of energy, impairing thinking and memory.

Against that backdrop, a team of neuroscientists at the Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience at Stanford’s Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute have zeroed in on a critical regulator of brain metabolism known as the kynurenine pathway. They hypothesize that that the kynurenine pathway is over-activated as a result of amyloid plaque and tau proteins that accumulate in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

Now, with support from research and training grants from the Knight Initiative, they have shown that by blocking the kynurenine pathway in lab mice with Alzheimer’s Disease, they can improve, or even restore, cognitive function by reinstating healthy brain metabolism.

Last month, researchers created an electronic link between the brains of two rats separated by thousands of miles. This was just another reminder that technology will one day make us telepaths. But how far will this transformation go? And how long will it take before humans evolve into a fully-fledged hive mind? We spoke to the experts to find out.

I spoke to three different experts, all of whom have given this subject considerable thought: Kevin Warwick, a British scientist and professor of cybernetics at the University of Reading; Ramez Naam, an American futurist and author of NEXUS (a scifi novel addressing this topic); and Anders Sandberg, a Swedish neuroscientist from the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford.

Continue reading “How Much Longer Until Humanity Becomes A Hive Mind?” »

To be able to make full use of these modeling systems, researchers have developed a growing toolkit of genetic modification techniques. These techniques can be applied to mature brain organoids or to the preceding embryoid bodies (EBs) and founding cells. This review will describe techniques used for transient and stable genetic modification of brain organoids and discuss their current use and respective advantages and disadvantages. Transient approaches include adeno-associated virus (AAV) and electroporation-based techniques, whereas stable genetic modification approaches make use of lentivirus (including viral stamping), transposon and CRISPR/Cas9 systems. Finally, an outlook as to likely future developments and applications regarding genetic modifications of brain organoids will be presented.

The development of brain organoids (Kadoshima et al., 2013; Lancaster et al., 2013) has opened up new ways to study brain development and evolution as well as neurodevelopmental disorders. Brain organoids are multicellular 3D structures that mimic certain aspects of the cytoarchitecture and cell-type composition of certain brain regions over a particular developmental time window (Heide et al., 2018). These structures are generated by differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) or embryonic stem cells (ESCs) into embryoid bodies followed by, or combined, with neural induction (Kadoshima et al., 2013; Lancaster et al., 2013). In principle, two different classes of brain organoid protocols can be distinguished, namely: (i) the self-patterning protocols which produce whole-brain organoids; and (ii) the pre-patterning protocols which produce brain region-specific organoids (Heide et al., 2018).

The world’s first brain prosthesis has passed the first stages of live testing.

The microchip, designed to model a part of the brain called the hippocampus, has been used successfully to replace a neural circuit in slices of rat brain tissue kept alive in a dish. The prosthesis will soon be ready for testing in animals.

The device could ultimately be used to replace damaged brain tissue which may have been destroyed in an accident, during a stroke, or by neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. It is the first attempt to replace central brain regions dealing with cognitive functions such as learning or speech.

Memory consolidation involves the synchronous reactivation of hippocampal cells active during recent experience in sleep sharp-wave ripples (SWRs). How this increase in firing rates and synchrony after learning is counterbalanced to preserve network stability is not understood. We discovered a network event generated by an intrahippocampal circuit formed by a subset of CA2 pyramidal cells to cholecystokinin-expressing (CCK+) basket cells, which fire a barrage of action potentials (“BARR”) during non–rapid eye movement sleep. CA1 neurons and assemblies that increased their activity during learning were reactivated during SWRs but inhibited during BARRs. The initial increase in reactivation during SWRs returned to baseline through sleep. This trend was abolished by silencing CCK+ basket cells during BARRs, resulting in higher synchrony of CA1 assemblies and impaired memory consolidation.

Scientists from the University of Reading developed a hydrogel that learns to play ‘Pong’ and mimics heartbeats in sync with a pacemaker. The study suggests hydrogels can exhibit adaptive behaviors.