The Blue Brain Project

Jun 4, 2008
This is an image taken from a typical PET acquisition. It is a tomographic view of a brain examination in transaxial view. Red areas show more accumulated radioactivity and blue areas are partions where low to no activity was accumulated. It should illustrate how a typical PET image looks like. It was taken with an ECAT Exact HR+ PET Scanner.

Image via Wikipedia

Came across something interesting a while back, that I thought I should share. Apparently, scientists are in the process of building a brain – or a supercomputer ‘model’ of a brain. The project is called the Blue Brain project, and the intention is to create a biologically accurate model of a brain.

And it seems like they might just succeed. They’ve already accurately simulated one column of a rat’s brain. Yes, it’s only a small part, but that small part is a really huge step. It shows that the project is indeed feasible.

I really admire the group of scientists that are doing this. The painstaking effort required, and the determination to push through despite all the skepticism – and in a project like this, there’s bound to be a lot. But yet, they continued on, they gave it a shot, and even though they’ve only done a small portion, they’ve opened our eyes to the possibilities. There’s a lot to be learned from them.

But what really intrigues me about this project is the questions it raises. Are we really as mysterious as we think? Personally, questions abound about issues such as religion and culture. Will these simulated brains ultimately develop various religions like we have? Will they form various cultures with different beliefs?

There’s a lot that’s really interesting about this project. And I personally will be really interested to see what comes of it. If it succeeds, it could very well show what defines us – what the human consciousness truly is.

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Focusing Your Efforts

Apr 6, 2008

The New York Times recently ran an article about how will power is limited.

Psychologist Roy Baumeister and others have found that people who successfully accomplish one task requiring self-control are less persistent on a second, seemingly unrelated task.

Scientific evidence of the value of focus, perhaps?