Neuroscience Brains Deceased Conservative for Simulations of the Human Mind?

Brains can be preserved and later revived?

From the very beginning of humanity, we dream of becoming immortal. Now we could have come a lot closer to this dream. Researchers have announced that they are offering the ability to conserve human brains with the help of chemicals to upload brain data to the cloud in the future and thus make it immortal.

• Company offers to keep brains tough.
• In the process of preservation, the patient dies.
• Data from the brain will be uploaded to the cloud in the future.
• From the data should then eventually be created a simulation of the human mind.
• Waiting list places cost $ 10,000.
• Already 25 people are on the waiting list.

The scientists at the US startup Nectome offer to keep the brains of their customers for an extremely long period, so the neuronal structure is to be preserved. In the future, the data of the brain will then be scanned and be re-activated with the help of a kind of computer simulation.

Will it be possible in the future to preserve brains and then restore the data contained in a simulation of the human mind? (Image: denisismagilov / fotolia.com)

In the process of preservation, the patient dies

The substance used for this process has been tested successfully on animals. Blood flow to the brain is replaced by embalming chemicals that preserve the neuronal structure, even if they kill the patient. In other words, the whole process has a big harken: the chemical agents used in preservation must be used on living people, but this process is 100 percent deadly, says Nectome founder Robert McIntyre, referring to "MIT Technology Review" Magazine of the internationally recognized Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In addition, there is currently no method for uploading brains data.

Simulation of a biological neural network for the first time in 2024?

For the process, the brain needs to be very well preserved, if there is any hope that it will eventually be uploaded or reactivated. For this, the process must be done at the moment of death, more precisely, the process must be the cause of death. Another disadvantage for sufferers is that a complete simulation of a biological neural network is currently not possible. The researchers hope in 2024 to demonstrate a first such simulation. However, there is no timeline for when such a cloud loaded into the cloud has the ability to interact with the outside world.

Process is similar to the medical aid to suicide

In the process of preservation sufferers will suffer at least no pain, explain the scientists, thanks to the administered painkillers. For those affected, the user experience will be similar to aiding and abetting a suicide, McIntyre continues. Nectome believes that the service they provide is legal in certain US states with certain euthanasia laws, including California.

A place on the waiting list costs $ 10,000

The company has already received $ 1 million from investors. US $ 120,000 was raised via a US start-up center (Y Combinator) founded in March 2005. A waiting list should now generate more revenue. Because if you want your brain to be preserved, you'll need to sign up on a waiting list and pay an additional $ 10,000. However, it is still unclear whether a brain conserved by the company's method can even read out enough data needed to create a simulation of the human mind.

Is the business model fraud?

Some critics consider the business model to be fraudulent, because storing neural connections is by no means sufficient to generate a simulation of a person's personality with this data. So far, however, have 25 people put on the waiting list and paid $ 10,000. These assume that their brain will eventually be uploaded to the cloud.

The startup has already received two prizes for its developed process

Nectome was founded in 2016. The process developed by the company has already received two awards from the Brain Preservation Foundation for the preservation of a rabbit brain in 2016 and for the preservation of a pig brain in 2018. However, the project seems extremely questionable from an ethical point of view, and aid to suicide is prohibited in many states, including Germany. (As)