Sebastian Seung: I am my connectome

What technology do we have right now to map the connections of the brain? Is there anything that currently exists with enough granularity to take a snapshot of our neurons and their connections? edit: thanks for the replies, did some research found this TED talk that visualizes the problem pretty well ▶ this video

There's a great Penn & Teller "Bullshit" segment about Cryonics (mildly NSFW; it's Penn & Teller): link Is it possible? Certainly - the Wood Frog evolved to freeze itself every winter[1] and successfully unthaw itself. It floods its blood with sugars so it doesn't form ice crystals, solving the problem of tissue destruction, then unthaws in the Spring from the outside in and restarts its biological systems. How does modern cryonics solve this problem? Antifreeze. The fluid that poisons you if it enters your system[2]. For you to be revived, then, we'd have to figure out: * how to unthaw your body in a way that won't destroy essential parts of it * how to cure you of Ethylene glycol poisoning * how to cure you of the thing you died from * how to bring you back to life Perhaps a clever solution will be thought up that will just do a quick scan of your connectome[3] and upload it to a simulation. But why would anyone go through the trouble? Presumably this would be many years in the future. Would anyone even care enough in an overpopulated future-Earth to start bringing back their ancestors? When's the last time you called your grandparents? The bottom line is that if you're truly desperate for an "afterlife" (or, perhaps more accurately, extra-life), cryonics is probably your best bet presently. That bet, however, is rationally just an incredible waste of money that would more effectively prolong your effect on the world if instead it was used to support the people and ideals

I really like this conception of brains working as internally competing and cooperating ferral units. I'll have to give it some more thought in the morning. I do have an entreaty for you though: In this era of high throughput computing, elegant biotechnology, and the coming of the BRAIN initiative from the national level, I believe the best way to attack the problems of mind/brain right now is hard work and the scientific method. We need more data and we need to analyze it. We're hiring developers for eyewire.org - a game to map the brain by crowd sourcing/gamifying the analysis of electron micrographs of stained retinal slices from mice. We're developing the tools to map the connectome. For real. The PI for my lab, Dr. Sebastian Seung, is mentioned in this article, and I love working with him. There are other absolutely incredible people working here too that will blow your mind. Send an email to support at eyewire dot org if you want in or email me personally (see link in my profile) if you want more details. (I won't be able to get back to you instantly - I'm totally swamped, but if you're hired, based on my experiences so far, it'll be worth the wait). Here are two fun explanatory videos from TED/TEDx: ▶ this video - Sebastian Seung talking connectomes link - Amy Robinson talking EyeWire Thanks for reading. I hope this post isn't too far out of our community norms - I don't see too many (large) job postings in the comments, but I felt like this article is the perfect place t