Humans may be able to upload their brains to computers by 2045 - Indian Express

PTI : New York, Thu Jun 20 2013, 16:11 hrs Humans may be able to upload their brains to computers by as early as 2045, some futurists believe. This notion formed the basis for the Global Future 2045 International Congress, a futuristic conference held in New York, last week. The conference, which is the brainchild of Russian multimillionaire Dmitry Itskov, featured Ray Kurzweil – an inventor, futurist and now director of engineering at Google - who predicted that by 2045, technology will have surpassed human brainpower to create a kind of superintelligence an event known as the singularity. Other scientists have said that robots will overtake humans by 2100, 'LiveScience' reported. According to Moore's law, computing power doubles approximately every two years. Several technologies are undergoing similar exponential advances, from genetic sequencing to 3D printing, Kurzweil told conference attendees. By 2045, "based on conservative estimates of the amount of computation you need to functionally simulate a human brain, we'll be able to expand the scope of our intelligence a billion-fold," Kurzweil said. Substantial achievements have already been made in the field of brain-computer interfaces, or BCIs (also called brain-machine interfaces). Jose Carmena and Michel Maharbiz, electrical engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, are working to develop state-of-the-art motor BCIs. These devices consist of pill-size electrode arrays that record neural signals from the brain's motor areas, which are then decoded by a computer and used to control a computer cursor or prosthetic limb (such as a robotic arm). Theodore Berger, a neural engineer at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, is taking BCIs to a new level by developing a memory prosthesis. Berger aims to replace part of the brain's hippocampus, the region that converts short-term memories into long-term ones, with a BCI. The device records the electrical activity that encodes a simple short-term memory (such as pushing a button) and converts it to a digital signal. That signal is passed into a computer where it is mathematically transformed and then fed back into the brain, where it gets sealed in as a long-term memory. ... contd. ALSO READ Mars was oxygen-rich billion years before Earth: Oxford study Yahoo rejects fears hackers will exploit old user IDs Microsoft talked with Nokia about buying devices unit: report Facebook has never been stronger since IPO, Sandberg says Please read our terms of use before posting comments TERMS OF USE: The views, opinions and comments posted are your, and are not endorsed by this website. You shall be solely responsible for the comment posted here. The website reserves the right to delete, reject, or otherwise remove any views, opinions and comments posted or part thereof. You shall ensure that the comment is not inflammatory, abusive, derogatory, defamatory &/or obscene, or contain pornographic matter and/or does not constitute hate mail, or violate privacy of any person (s) or breach confidentiality or otherwise is illegal, immoral or contrary to public policy. Nor should it contain anything infringing copyright &/or intellectual property rights of any person(s). via Science - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNHydJ-nPm4brqOvDqJKYoCHAYpT9g&url=http://www.indianexpress.com/news/humans-may-be-able-to-upload-their-brains-to-computers-by-2045/1131629/

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