You Are Your Connectome

Deezus · Dec 12, 2011

Incredibly interesting...

http://connectomethebook.com/

A connectome is a map of connections between a brain’s neurons.

In addition to this neuronal definition, there are other meanings of “connectome” that substitute brain regions or neuron types for neurons. The regional connectome is the one currently being mapped by the Human Connectome Project using MRI. A neuronal connectome is far more complex: yours contains a million times more connections than your genome has letters. Finding the complete neuronal connectome of a human brain is one of the greatest scientific and technological challenges of all time.

You are your connectome.

This expresses the idea that your personal identity is encoded in the pattern of connections between your neurons. If this hypothesis is true, then any kind of personal change is ultimately about changing your connectome.

The four R’s

The brain is naturally endowed with four mechanisms of connectome change:
Reweighting means changes in the strengths of synapses.
Reconnection is the creation and elimination of synapses.
Rewiring is the creation and elimination of neural branches.
Regeneration is the creation and elimination of neurons.

Chardon · Dec 12, 2011

I would rather be human than robot.

MattyFos. · Dec 13, 2011

KI4MVP · Dec 14, 2011

J-Deezy said:
My Thoughts...

Mapping an entire human brain's Connectome holds infinite possibilities... We could reconnect people's brains to eliminate mental disorders... We could make a "copy" of a person's brain inside of a supercomputer, possibly enabling us to allow "people" (at least their minds) to live forever... We could (theoretically) "cure" depression, eliminate evil thoughts, etc. However, there could be serious questions/problems from doing all of this, including who decides what a "healthy" brain's connectome should look like? What happens if this technology is used for mind-control, etc. by those in power around the world? What if, by removing neural connections related to depression, etc. limits our ability to feel sadness or pain (essential feelings that make us "human".) Thoughts?

the person will still die, the best you could have in the computer is a copy.

This whole approach both appears to gloss over the fact you don't just need the connection map, you also need the fully functioning neurons. There's also the question of if even that's quite enough. Is that thing inside your head that ultimately makes you who you are just another collection of neurons or is there more to it than that.

Also, creating AI by completely simulating a human brain just sounds like giving up on really solving the problem. Not only that, the result is likely a lot more complex than it needs to be. There is a ton of work that our brain does that has little to do with intelligence.

What I find far more interesting is the work of Jeff Hawkins, founder of Palm and Mindspring, and inventor of the Palm Pilot and the Treo. This video is a few years old, but the idea is to actually build a theory of how intelligence actually works in the brain and then implement a system that works similarly.

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You Are Your Connectome

Deezus

OLGA LOVES YOU

Chardon

MOD

MattyFos.

Let's go Brandon!!

KI4MVP

formerly LJ4MVP

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