[ExI] Brain emulation, brain regions and AGI [WAS Re: Kelly's future]

[Richard Loosemore]

Eugen Leitl wrote:
> On Fri, May 27, 2011 at 09:18:27AM -0400, Richard Loosemore wrote:
> 
>> My own, more general answer to the issue of AGI via brain emulation is  
>> that, as you are suggesting, the modeling of the human mind/brain is  
>> likely to be the first successful AGI, but this is unlikely to be whole  
>> brain emulation in the sense of a low-level neuron-by-neuron copying.
> 
> I'm *so* looking forward to the first individually accurate connectome.
> Even just at micron resolution.

But:  suppose it were available, today.  At micron resolution you would 
be able to see something like this:

http://richardloosemore.com/images/neurons_micron_per_pixel.jpg

Now, consider the amount of fine structure (the wispy connections, exact 
shape of bodies, and ..... the synapses!) that are lost from this picture.

(Compare with the original, which I saved as 
http://richardloosemore.com/images/neurons.jpg)



What would you do if you actually had such a picture of one brain, 
today?  How on earth would you go about interpreting it?  Making sense 
of what the connections meant?

Useful, maybe, but (I believe) only to someone who already had soaked up 
all the cognitive psychology they possibly could.


Richard Loosemore