There are projects pointing the way towards testability:
OpenWorm and Nemaload are working on uploading C. Elegans and determining exactly what you need to get an accurate simulation. This is necessary (but probably not sufficient) to figuring out what you need to preserve in a human brain to get approximately-you back.
The Brain Preservation Foundation is running electron microscope analysis of preserved brains to see exactly how well cryonics and chemical fixation preserve things right now.
A while back I did a survey of the state of nematode emulation research to try and understand what this meant for whole brain emulation. At the time David Dalrymple was very optimistic about his Nemaload project; don’t know how it’s going though.
For the current state of the Brain Preservation Foundation’s prizes, two Reddit AMA comments by Ken Hayworth are interesting:
Alcor has not sent us any samples and is not currently participating in our prize competition. However, one of our competitor teams is 21st Century Medicine which is a leading cryobiology research lab which uses some of the same techniques as Alcor but in a controlled laboratory environment on small animals. 21st Century Medicine has published some truly amazing results including showing that rat brain slices can be brought down to near liquid nitrogen temperature, stored for weeks, and then rewarmed with near complete recovery of neuronal function. http://www.21cmpublications.com/viewpublication.aspx?id=90 and http://www.21cmpublications.com/viewpublication.aspx?id=23
They have also been hard at work producing electron micrographs of their vitrified brain tissue in order to meet the stringent requirements of our prize. Unfortunately the technical difficulties of preparing and staining their tissue for the electron microscope has slowed our evaluation but it is ongoing and I anticipate them showing very impressive results in the near future. Eventually it would be great if Alcor itself provided additional electron micrograph evidence (beyond what is already out there) demonstrating the state of brain preservation in their actual procedures. The fact that they have not produced more evidence is at least in part due to funding constraints. It would be great if some very rich person would go to Alcor and say “I will fund your operation big time but first you have to prove to me that it preserves the brain’s connectome.” This type of skeptical evaluation is where our brain preservation prize started but it has not yet reached the level of funding and interest necessary to precipitate the required action.
And on chemopreservation:
We are currently evaluating a whole mouse brain sample provided by the neuroscience researcher Shawn Mikula. This is an official entry for winning the mouse phase of our brain preservation prize. If the submitted brain proves to be as well preserved as the electron microscope images he has provides us already, then it will be sufficient to win the mouse phase. To be clear, this means that with today’s imaging technology we can verify that the precise wiring of the brain has been preserved in a state that could last for millennia. He has published a preliminary protocol for whole mouse brain preservation and staining for electron microscopy at the following link: http://www.nature.com/nmeth/journal/v9/n12/abs/nmeth.2213.html He has since greatly improved this protocol and presented the latest results at the Society for Neuroscience conference last week. All of the neuroscientist I have discussed his protocol with are very impressed at the quality of preservation of neural circuitry. His project is aimed not just at preserving a brain but is instead aimed at actually mapping the brain circuitry in its entirety using today’s electron microscope technology. His is truly exciting and groundbreaking research. His protocol is not directly applicable to something as large as a human brain but it seems there are straight forward way to adapt it to a human.
rat brain slices can be brought down to near liquid nitrogen temperature, stored for weeks, and then rewarmed with near complete recovery of neuronal function.
This is good to hear. It will be even better to hear that it’s been well-replicated.
There are projects pointing the way towards testability:
OpenWorm and Nemaload are working on uploading C. Elegans and determining exactly what you need to get an accurate simulation. This is necessary (but probably not sufficient) to figuring out what you need to preserve in a human brain to get approximately-you back.
The Brain Preservation Foundation is running electron microscope analysis of preserved brains to see exactly how well cryonics and chemical fixation preserve things right now.
A while back I did a survey of the state of nematode emulation research to try and understand what this meant for whole brain emulation. At the time David Dalrymple was very optimistic about his Nemaload project; don’t know how it’s going though.
For the current state of the Brain Preservation Foundation’s prizes, two Reddit AMA comments by Ken Hayworth are interesting:
And on chemopreservation:
This is good to hear. It will be even better to hear that it’s been well-replicated.