The Singularity Summit 2009 takes place from October 3rd to October 4th. Speakers include David Chalmers, Ray Kurzweil, Stephen Wolfram, and many more. Topics are future-techs from space exploration to brain emulation. I just listened to an interview with Anders Sandberg, who is one of the invited speakers, about mind uploading. Mind uploading is the emulation of a human's complete brain function in a prosthetic substrate [minduploading.org].
One of Anders Sandberg's statements is that brain emulation could be possible by approximately 2047, given certain conditions. This is close to Ray Kurzweil's prediction of 2040. Sandberg says that if the brain would have to be simulated at almost atomic level, the time perspective would be rather about 2090, however given the assumption that the brain can be simulated at a physiological level, which he admits is just guesswork at the moment, whole brain simulations or brain emulations could be possible by about 2047.
See the full interview yourself in this video.
The estimation of 2047 is based on the assumption that Moore's law will continue until then. I made an (admittedly amateurish) attempt at extrapolating computing power. The plot you see below is based on the plot created by wikimedia user Wgsimon. It shows transistor counts by year. The time around 2047 I marked with "mind uploading."
If you are interested in more talks from the singularity summit, here comes the feed:
U COMMENT
I FOLLOW
Posts
I believe that Moore's law will not hold. Because an even faster rate of increase will happen. It will not be just transistors. There will be memristors and quantum computing. Mind uploading for the average joe will be available this century. I want to have an augmented mind using nanobots. My awareness will expand beyond my brain and in the event my brain is destroyed I will continue to exist.
I am often disturbed in my concentration by hunger and sleep. Uploading my mind could remove all these worries.
In the novel "Accelerando" by Charles Stross about humanity's race towards technological singularity, one of the principal characters starts out with a small head-mounted exocortex that speeds up his research and supports his memory. Until mind uploading will be possible I want that one.
Subscribe to replies to this post
This conversation is missing your voice. Your feedback is appreciated.
Post a Comment
You can use some HTML tags, such as <b>, <i>, <a>
You can follow the discussion of this post by subscribing.
You are free to include information from this article on your own site if you provide a backlink. You can use the following markup: