#henry markram

The Human Brain Project: Science From Fiction

by staff writer Laura Davis

Once again, science is taking a stab at catching up with science fiction. In an ambitious undertaking, the Human Brain Project (HBP), an international … well, brain trust, under the direction of renowned neurology researcher Henry Markram, plans to create a working computer model of the human brain. Markram explained the project at TED in 2009 as, “a Noah’s ark of…

Theories or What Does the Least Damage?

“Of all the therapies and various interventions we tried before you were able to write to us, did any help you?” I asked Emma the other day.

“No,” she wrote and then looked me in the eye and said out loud, as if I might not have understood her, “No.”

I have written about what we would have done differently had we known all that we now know ‘here‘ but still, I have to admit, I was surprised.

“But…

-Vivimos con las mismas neuronas toda la vida, aunque se estima que se pierden 10,000 cada día. Es importante mantener saludables esas células más tiempo.

-¿Qué puedo hacer para lograrlo?

-Cambiar, sorprenderte. Aprender cosas nuevas, hacer nuevos amigos, viajar, tener nuevos retos, estímulos...Eso es el alimento del cerebro.

Extracto de la entrevista de Judith De Jorge, periodista de ABC, al neurocientífico Henry Markram, director del proyecto Blue Brain y del Proyecto Cerebro Humano.

At least Henry Markram does. Henry Markram is the director of Blue Brain project, which attempted to bring engineering to neuroscience to the largest extent, building up an artificial brain in 10 years.

Is it completely insane? Absolutely not. We have witnessed how much progress supercomputer has made during the past decades, how many human brains are successfully challenged by those robots. We should believe a possibility that those computer can simulate the brain activity.

Wait, it's kind of tricky. They didn't say it was necessarily a human brain. That's right, what they started off is rat's neocortical column, which contains roughly 10,000 neurons, a lot less complicated than others.

However, during a talk given in TED conference in 2009, Henry confirmed that the long-term goal was to build a detailed, functional stimulation of the physiological processes in the human brain.

“It’s far more about running the model, looking at a phenomenon, looking at where the vulnerabilities are and looking for diseases rather than running a model that somehow is going to be magically intelligent,” he said.

That's ambitious! 

One of their key selling points is that their project can help improve our use of existing knowledge. There are currently about 200,000 neuroscientists worldwide, who have produced millions of scientific articles. "The knowledge is fragmented," says Markram. "It's time to bring these pieces together."

If we are positive about this, we can actually take use of the artificial brain to accelerate and expand our current understanding of human brain and untangle some neurological diseases. However, not long ago, it was the human genome project, which also raises high expectation -- turns out to be a disappointment to patients. Alzheimer's continues to plague mankind, as do Parkinson's and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. 

At this point, science makes no difference with entertainment. You come up with an idea, everyone buys it. Then you can carry it on. It's always good to have an ambitious goal and some tempting selling points. The truth is, this project has already raised almost 1.5 billion dollars for 10 years, and will collaborate with geneticist, molecule biologist, electrical and computer engineer, and neuroscientists in 9 universities. Apparently, there are enough talents that believe they can achieve such a goal and plenty of resources available. Just like what Henry said, we are just 6 seconds in the history of evolution.