Lifeboat Foundation

Another futurist, Dave Evans, founder and CTO of Silicon Valley stealth startup Stringify, gave his thoughts about Kurzweil’s nanobot idea in an interview with James Bedsole on February.

Evans explained that he thinks such a merging of technology and biology isn’t at all farfetched. In fact, he described three stages as to how this will occur: the wearable phase (where we are today), the embeddable phase (where we’re headed, with neural implants and such), and the replaceable phase.

Continue reading “Kurzweil: By 2030, Nanobots Will Flow Throughout Our Bodies” »

The DARPA Targeted Neuroplasticity Training (TNT) program is exploring ways to speed up skill acquisition by activating synaptic plasticity. If the program succeeds, downloadable learning that happens in a flash may be the result.

In March 2016, DARPA — the U.S. military’s “mad science” branch — announced their Targeted Neuroplasticity Training (TNT) program. The TNT program aims to explore various safe neurostimulation methods for activating synaptic plasticity, which is the brain’s ability to alter the connecting points between neurons — a requirement for learning. DARPA hopes that building up that ability by subjecting the nervous system to a kind of workout regimen will enable the brain to learn more quickly.

DARPA announced the Targeted Neuroplasticity Training, or TNT, program last March, and work now has begun on the effort to discover the safest and most effective ways to activate a natural process called “synaptic plasticity.”

Plasticity is the brain’s ability to strengthen or weaken its neural connections to adapt to changes in the environment. For TNT Program Manager Dr. Doug Weber, such plasticity is about learning.

“We’re talking about neural plasticity, or how the neurons, which are the working units in the brain, how their function changes over time as we train on new skills,” he said during a recent interview with DoD News.

Continue reading “DARPA Funds Brain-Stimulation Research to Speed Learning” »

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Memory might form simultaneously in the hippocampus and the cortex, but remain “silent” in the cortex for several weeks before maturing.

For the first time, researchers have found a functional link between the bacteria in the gut and the onset of Parkinson’s disease, one of the world’s most common debilitating brain disorders.

A team of scientists from several institutions in the United States and Europe showed how changing the bacteria in the guts of mice affected the manifestation of Parkinson’s symptoms — even including bacteria taken from the guts of humans with the disease.

The findings suggest a new way of treating the disease: The best target for treatment may be the gut, rather than the brain. The researchers hope the new information can be used to develop “next generation” probiotics, more sophisticated than the sort of probiotics found on the shelves of health food stores today.

Continue reading “Parkinson’s linked to gut bacteria” »

Sergio Canavero, a controversial professor and neurosurgeon, wants to perform the first human head transplant in December.

He told German magazine OOOM that the procedure will take place in China. According to the Observer, it will take 80 surgeons, 36 hours and $10 million to execute.

Like a sci-fi tale come to life, Canavero, who’s also the former director of the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group, claims that people whose brains have been cryogenically frozen could be revived within three years.

Continue reading “This doctor plans to perform a human head transplant this year” »

Yesterday DARPA announced it is funding eight teams led by seven universities to perform the fundamental science and technological development that may help us reach our goal of delivering a 30% improvement in the rate at which people can learn new cognitive skills.

The teams are led by: Arizona State University Johns Hopkins University University of Florida University of Maryland The University of Texas at Dallas University of Wisconsin-Madison Wright State University.

Even our most imaginative expectations of AI are only primitive — but as neuroscience understands the brain more deeply, it will unlock the full potential of hybrid intelligence.