The day is coming when we will be able to scan our entire consciousness into a computer. How will we coexist with our digital replicas?
Category: neuroscience – Page 956
Brain chips could soon give people superintelligence
Brain-to-computer interfaces and intelligence boosting chips implanted in the brain could soon make their way out of the realms of science fiction and into reality.
Already, some of the biggest tech giants in the industry like Elon Musk and Facebook are working to create brain-computer interfaces.
CBS Chicago recently spoke to Dr. Moran Cerf, a neuroscientist at Northwestern University, who is currently developing a non-invasive computer chip that when implanted in the brain could give an individual super intelligence.
A Mother-Daughter Duo Develops What Could Be The World’s First Alzheimer’s Vaccine
Mei Mei Hu vowed to never work with her mother, Chang Yi, but she knew this was bigger than the both of them.
Having a loved one not recognize you, or forget a shared experience can be heartbreaking but that’s what Alzheimer’s does to you. We are, ultimately, nothing but the sum of our memories and experiences, so to lose the ability to remember is to lose one’s identity. Alzheimer’s is currently the sixth-largest cause for death in the United States with over 5.8 million Americans diagnosed with the memory loss disease. After 200 unsuccessful attempts worldwide to find a drug that treats Alzheimer’s, a mother-daughter duo is now close to finding a vaccine, according to Wired.
Lab-Grown Human Mini Brains Show Brainy Activity
As the little structures grow, their constituents specialize into different types of brain cells, begin to form connections and emit brain waves. They could be useful models for development and neurological conditions.
It’s not easy to study the early development of the human brain.
Doug Ethell at Ending Age-Related Diseases 2019
We’re continuing to release talks from Ending Age-Related Diseases 2019, our highly successful two-day conference that featured talks from leading researchers and investors, bringing them together to discuss the future of aging and rejuvenation biotechnology.
Today, we’re releasing a talk from Dr. Doug Ethell, who announced his company’s efforts to combat Alzheimer’s disease, describing where and how this neurodegenerative disease starts and discussing his company’s work on developing therapies for the cribiform plate, which naturally clears amyloid-forming proteins from the brain before they aggregate.
Brain-inspired computing could tackle big problems in a small way
While computers have become smaller and more powerful and supercomputers and parallel computing have become the standard, we are about to hit a wall in energy and miniaturization. Now, Penn State researchers have designed a 2-D device that can provide more than yes-or-no answers and could be more brainlike than current computing architectures.
“Complexity scaling is also in decline owing to the non-scalability of traditional von Neumann computing architecture and the impending ‘Dark Silicon’ era that presents a severe threat to multi-core processor technology,” the researchers note in today’s (Sept 13) online issue of Nature Communications.
The Dark Silicon era is already upon us to some extent and refers to the inability of all or most of the devices on a computer chip to be powered up at once. This happens because of too much heat generated from a single device. Von Neumann architecture is the standard structure of most modern computers and relies on a digital approach—” yes” or “no” answers—where program instruction and data are stored in the same memory and share the same communications channel.
Dietary supplement may help with schizophrenia
A dietary supplement, sarcosine, may help with schizophrenia as part of a holistic approach complementing antipsychotic medication, according to a UCL researcher.
In an editorial published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, Professor David Curtis (UCL Genetics, Evolution & Environment and QMUL Centre for Psychiatry) suggests the readily available product could easily be incorporated into treatment plans, while calling for clinical trials to clarify the benefit and inform guidelines.
“Sarcosine represents a very logical treatment and the small number of clinical trials so far do seem to show that it can be helpful. It certainly seems to be safe and some patients report feeling better on it,” he said.
Joe Rogan Experience #1350 — Nick Bostrom
Nick Bostrom is a Swedish philosopher at the University of Oxford known for his work on existential risk, the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, superintelligence risks, and the reversal test.