Whole Brain Emulation - Bryant McGill

# Whole Brain Emulation **Entity class:** Concept or analytic term **Domain:** Computational Neuroscience / Brain Simulation **Doc Type:** Research Frontier Node **Maturity:** Conceptual and Partial Experimental Precursors **Related:** [[Connectomics]], [[Long-Term Memory Substrate]], [[Aldehyde-Stabilized Cryopreservation]], [[Consciousness Continuity Infrastructure]] --- ## Definition **Whole brain emulation (WBE)** is the proposed construction of a computational model with sufficient structural and dynamical fidelity to reproduce the relevant functional behavior of an entire brain. The required biological resolution, state variables, validation criteria, and relationship between functional reproduction and personal continuity remain unresolved. ## Institutional research context [[wiki/Foresight Institute|Foresight Institute]] explicitly places whole-brain emulation alongside brain-computer interfaces and neuro-inspired AI safety in its [neurotechnology program](https://foresight.org/focus-areas/neurotechnology/). [[wiki/Convergence Research|Convergence Research]] uses this connection to make the human-reconstruction branch visible within the broader machine-intelligence inquiry. The research agenda leads directly to the criteria below: what is reproduced, what can be tested, and whose continuity is at issue. ## Critical distinction Successful behavioral emulation, memory reconstruction, subjective consciousness, and continuity of the original person are related but non-identical claims. A continuity architecture must state which criterion it is attempting to satisfy. ## Neurotech cluster route **Collection:** [[collections/Neurotech|Neurotech]] **Source articles:** [[articles/The Architecture of Continuity and Emerging Neuroinformatics Standards|The Architecture of Continuity and Emerging Neuroinformatics Standards]] ## Relationships **Related nodes:** [[wiki/Foresight Institute|Foresight Institute]] · [[wiki/Convergence Research|Convergence Research]] [[wiki/Whole Brain Emulation|Whole Brain Emulation]] is related to [[collections/Neurotech|Neurotech]] through [[articles/The Architecture of Continuity and Emerging Neuroinformatics Standards|The Architecture of Continuity and Emerging Neuroinformatics Standards]].  This entry's documented connections are expressed in its definition and related-work routes, with provenance retained in the source-linked material.  ## Related Work in the Corpus  - In [[articles/The Architecture of Continuity and Emerging Neuroinformatics Standards|The Architecture of Continuity and Emerging Neuroinformatics Standards]], ****1\. The Ontological and Physiological Basis of Continuity Storage**** provides the narrative context for **Whole Brain Emulation**: Concept route: personal continuity ontology · autobiographical memory · Object-Property-Context format · episode graph · engram · synaptic ensemble · long-term memory substrate · whole brain emulation · aldehyde-stabilized…  ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts  > "An emulation would be a software individual." > **— Anders Sandberg**, *Whole-brain emulation writings, wording candidate* *Verification Status: Unverified — exact wording/source has not yet been independently confirmed against a primary source; source clue: Whole-brain emulation writings, wording candidate.* [[reminders/unverified/An Emulation Would Be a Software Individual by Anders Sandberg|An Emulation Would Be a Software Individual by Anders Sandberg]] > "Do we want to be able to live longer ourselves by being able to emulate our brains…" > **— Randal A. Koene**, *2019, Carboncopies discussion* [[reminders/Mind Upload/Could Brain Emulation Let Us Live Longer by Randal A. Koene|Could Brain Emulation Let Us Live Longer by Randal A. Koene]] > "The biological brain is able to run functions of the mind fairly efficiently, so we should be able to engineer the same." > **— Randal A. Koene**, *2014, whole-brain-emulation interview* [[reminders/Mind Upload/If Biology Can Run a Mind, Engineering May Too by Randal A. Koene|If Biology Can Run a Mind, Engineering May Too by Randal A. Koene]] > "No brain, never mind. Once my brain dies, unless I can somehow upload it into the Cloud, I die with it." > **— Christof Koch**, *Nautilus interview on consciousness and death* [[reminders/Consciousness/Once My Brain Dies by Christof Koch|Once My Brain Dies by Christof Koch]] > "Whole brain emulation is the technological realization of substrate-independent minds." > **— Randal A. Koene**, *Whole-brain emulation talks, wording candidate* *Verification Status: Unverified — exact wording/source has not yet been independently confirmed against a primary source; source clue: Whole-brain emulation talks, wording candidate.* [[reminders/unverified/Whole-Brain Emulation Is Substrate Independence Made Technical by Randal A. Koene|Whole-Brain Emulation Is Substrate Independence Made Technical by Randal A. Koene]]  > "While medicine will advance in the next half century, we are not on a crash-course for achieving immortality by curing all disease. Bodies simply wear down with use. We are on a crash-course, however, with technologies that let us store unthinkable amounts of data and run gargantuan simulations. Therefore, well before we understand how brains work, we will find ourselves able to digitally copy the brain's structure and able to download the conscious mind into a computer." > **— David M. Eagleman**, *2009, Edge Annual Question, “What Will Change Everything?”* [[reminders/Mind Upload/Brain Copies May Arrive Before We Understand the Brain by David M. Eagleman|Brain Copies May Arrive Before We Understand the Brain by David M. Eagleman]] > “We weren’t here to code the hosts. We were here to decode the guests.” > **— Robert Ford**, *Westworld, Season 2, Episode 7, “Les Écorchés” (2018)* [[reminders/Westworld/The Park Decoded Guests Instead of Coding Hosts by Robert Ford|The Park Decoded Guests Instead of Coding Hosts by Robert Ford]]