[MURG] new Road Map draft

[king-yin yan]

Hi Siv

The road map is slightly modified according to your
suggestions.

I also added a short explanation of the current BCI
problem to the .txt file, reproduced below.

>1.It is not necessary that only the "soft" brain
>interface could lead to a long term gradual
>replacement.

You're right, I should say what is required for long-term
replacement is a *chronic* implant. See the new map.

>2. The Brain implant need not be necessarily on the
>brain. I think the implant could be mounted on the
>cranial bones and just the micro-electrodes could be
>guided to the necessary synapses.

Maybe the whole brain needs to be taken out and be
artificially sustained. Afterall how can a person walk
around attached to a super computer which in my
mind I imagine to be fridge-sized at least.

====================================
Current Problems of Brain-Computer Interfacing
as relates to mind uploading
====================================
(From my limited understanding...)

1. Insertion Damage. If hard metallic electrodes are used,
they may cause damage to the neuropil during insertion.
This includes: puncturing glial cells causing them to release
excitotoxic neurotransmitters; puncturing blood vessels
/capillaries exposing neurons to blood which may cause
inflammation. This problem is partly resolved by "newer,
blunt-tipped, flexible, Teflon-coated stainless steel
microwires that produce very little damage and allow
permanent implantation"[1].

2. Density. One make of the Teflon-coated microwires
mentioned above has a 75-micron diameter. Neurons in
the cortex are ~35 microns apart on average (using
the statistics: neuron density in cortex = 5e+04/mm3).
This suggests that some improvement in probing density
is still needed.

3. Heat. (From a discussion on bionet.neuroscience)
Metallic electrodes must be made very thin, and this
increases their electrical resistance, generating a lot
of heat, which literally fries up brain tissue. One
possible remedy: use tiny refrigerators to cool the
brain areas?

4. Chemical reactions on the electrode surface. (?)

5. Neuro-inflammation may need to be suppressed.

[1] Berg, Neil. CHI Labs. "Brain-Machine Interfaces:
Current and Future Applications"
http://personal.bgsu.edu/~nberg/chilabs/bmi.htm

(IF the above problems can be satisfactorily resolved,
the whole idea of a "soft" BCI is unnecessary, which
involves considerablely more advanced technology.
Also a Brain-Support System (BSS) will not be needed
if a simpler approach suffices.)

Roadmap (different format, same stuff):
http://www.geocities.com/softuploading/RoadMap2.png
http://www.geocities.com/softuploading/RoadMap2.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/softuploading/RoadMap2.xml
http://www.geocities.com/softuploading/RoadMap-Explanations.txt



____________________________________________________________
Get advanced SPAM filtering on Webmail or POP Mail ... Get Lycos Mail!
http://login.mail.lycos.com/r/referral?aid=27005