# Functional Digital Twin **Entity class:** Computational neuroscience model **Collections:** [[collections/Neurotech|Neurotech]] · [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]] ## Definition A **Functional Digital Twin** is an executable model evaluated by how well it predicts a biological system's responses across observations and interventions. In continuity engineering, the term is narrower than a behavioral imitation: it concerns function and causal response, not automatic personhood or numerical identity. ## Relationships - **Model relationship:** Functional digital twins depend on [[wiki/Executable Brain Model|Executable Brain Model]], [[wiki/Neural State Capture|Neural State Capture]], and reference data from [[wiki/Connectomics|connectomics]]. - **Validation relationship:** [[wiki/causal sufficiency|Causal Sufficiency]] and [[wiki/Verification of Continuity Claims|Verification of Continuity Claims]] distinguish predictive fit from causal equivalence. - **Identity boundary:** A high-fidelity functional twin may remain a model, successor, or derivative rather than the same continuing person. - **Canonical source:** [[articles/Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer|Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer]]. <!-- BEGIN HUMANIZED RELATIONSHIPS 2026-09-11 --> This entry's documented connections are expressed in its definition and related-work routes, with provenance retained in the source-linked material. <!-- END HUMANIZED RELATIONSHIPS 2026-09-11 --> ## Related Work in the Corpus <!-- BEGIN HUMANIZED CORPUS ROUTES 2026-09-11 --> - In [[articles/Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer|Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer]], **VI. The brain as [[wiki/Executable Brain Model|executable model]]** provides the narrative context for **Functional Digital Twin**: The 2024 Nature paper Connectome-constrained networks predict neural activity across the fly visual system demonstrated that measured connectivity plus a task objective predicts biological neural activity — which converts the… <!-- END HUMANIZED CORPUS ROUTES 2026-09-11 --> ## Research Inferences <!-- BEGIN RESEARCH INFERENCES 2026-09-11 --> These entries translate the forward-looking register in [[research/Research Inferences|Research Inferences]] into ordinary wiki prose. The tier labels apply to the inference, not automatically to every factual anchor inside it. The interpretive frame comes from [[articles/Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer|Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer]] and [[articles/Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta|Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta]]. Collection route: [[collections/Neurotech|Neurotech]]. - **INF-0148 — Plausible.** Patient-specific brain models used to plan stimulation targets are emulation technology arriving under a therapeutic indication. Clinical digital twins will accumulate fidelity for medical reasons and be available for other purposes once they exist. <!-- END RESEARCH INFERENCES 2026-09-11 --> ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts > "In principle, a good physics simulator could, very slowly, simulate a brain and its environment." > **— Scott Draves**, *2015, Edge annual question “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?”* [[reminders/Simulation/A Physics Simulator Could Simulate a Brain by Scott Draves|A Physics Simulator Could Simulate a Brain by Scott Draves]] > "Will we increasingly be able to create machines that can produce input-output patterns that replicate human input-output patterns?" > **— Matthew D. Lieberman**, *2015, Edge annual question “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?”* [[reminders/Simulation/Can Machines Replicate Human Behavior From the Outside by Matthew D. Lieberman|Can Machines Replicate Human Behavior From the Outside by Matthew D. Lieberman]] > "Any software or robot can pronounce the words "I am intelligent" or "I am conscious," but those are not proofs of intelligence." > **— Eduardo Salcedo-Albaran**, *2015, Edge annual question “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?”* [[reminders/Consciousness/Claiming Consciousness Does Not Prove It by Eduardo Salcedo-Albaran|Claiming Consciousness Does Not Prove It by Eduardo Salcedo-Albaran]] > "A human download can think as fast as an AI, and compete with AI's if the human download wants too." > **— Frank Tipler**, *2015, Edge annual question “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?”* [[reminders/Mind Upload/Human Downloads Could Compete With AI by Frank Tipler|Human Downloads Could Compete With AI by Frank Tipler]] > "I think that from being a little independent thinking machine I am becoming a tiny part inside a far vaster thinking machine." > **— Susan Blackmore**, *2015, Edge annual question “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?”* [[reminders/Simulation/We Are Becoming Parts of a Larger Thinking Machine by Susan Blackmore|We Are Becoming Parts of a Larger Thinking Machine by Susan Blackmore]]