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| Source CG Trader |
Our human brain is one of the most complicated systems in nature, and our science has vastly advanced through the last century and the beginning of the twenty first , we have discovered many things and solved many mysteries, but we still have many challenges ahead. The brain is one of our biggest challenges, we understand many of the physical phenomena related to biology and physics but we still do not fully understand the "Thinking" process.
Perhaps the ultimate dream of a human is immortality, if you could live forever and everyone you have loved would live too. Now , I know this subject is a major ethical controversy; I do not intend to discuss this subject from that perspective. This article simply proposes a possible method to be able to transfer the conscience of a human to a machine.
In the picture below is a simplified illustartion of the main brain cell called "Neuron", of which we have about twenty billion ( 20,000,000,000) we carry over our shoulders. The cell consists of many parts and there are a lot of details about how it evolves into a brain cell and how it communicates, for the sake of this short article, I will keep the description short and use a simple analogy to convey my idea.
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| Source : Wikipedia |
The cell has fiber called "Dendrites" ,with an Input side and an output side. The signal arrives from other neuro cells to a neuro cell body and then another signal is fired and transmitted through the axon to other neuro cells. Scientist have isolated few neuro cells and studied the signals between them, from that they have learned somethings about the cells and the brain, this research continues and is evolving especially recently with major financial investments in brain research.
The brain cells communicate using electric signals with different signature form, but a known potential averaging at 60 mV.
In the physics of electricity a changing voltage is coupled with a changing current in a system with relatively constant resistance. Using a current clamp as the one shown in the picture below , we are able to measure the current passing through a cable without interfering with the power supply. Other more complicated laboratory equipment use the same Induction principle to measure the wave form, the wave phase , in other words a more accurate induction sensor can measure the signal form.
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| Source : Wikipedia |
Now here is where a nano robot can play a big role. If in the not so far future, we can design a nano robot with "Octopus" styled branches. This nano robot attaches itself to a cell and wraps one of his tenticles around each of the dendrites connected to other cells, each tenticle has the function of an accurate microsensitive current clamp, this nano robot can measure and record every signal leaving the cell.
When millions of these nano robots are injected into the brain, and are programmed so that each select a brain cell and monitors it; then each brain cell signall is being recorded and monitored. This nano robots can have an effective communication system to be able to send the signal data to a recieving computer. By maping these signal we could start to better understand how all cells communicate in a human's brain.
Now comes the interesting part. The nano robots in the brain, which I will call NanobotA, are monitoring every single cell and able to communicate the data, then few steps are needed to test the concept of Uploading a mind to a machine.
1) build a complicated mesh of nano robots that have another function, I will call them NanobotB .These robots are not inserted into a body, but assembeled in a non organic enviroment. NanobotB can align and connect the same way the brain cells are connected in the brain.They can generate similar signalls and read the incoming signals in the same way. So here we are copying the simple structure of the brain.
2) Connect each NanobotA to a NanobotB through wireless connection and synchronise the real organic brain with a NanobotB brain Mesh. Here the NanobotB mesh starts to generate and receive signals exactly like the ones in the biological human brain.
Once the two are synchronized, the NanobotB Brain will be functioning exactly like the real brain and containing the same data , the same signals and the same emotions.
Si what do you think ? Is our brain simply signals ?
Can you copy a person's mind with all memories and personality ?