[MURG] x prize write up

[Eric Zilli]

Responses inline:

On Mon, 11 Oct 2004 16:05:43 -0500, Joseph J. Strout <joe at strout.net> wrote:
> I've already submitted a suggestion for a prize for the first
> automatic machine capable of  scanning in 1 mm^3 of neural tissue
> with a resolution sufficient to identify 90% of the synaptic
> connections.
> 

This is definitely a good goal to aim for, but I don't think it's what
the X Prize people are looking for. They want major breakthroughs,
headlines: "Private Citizens Build Working Spaceship," "Scientists
Perfect Matter Teleportation."
Somehow "Group Scans Cubic Millimeter of Brain" doesn't sound as impressive.

> 
> If you really want to propose a challenge that includes such things
> as emulation as well as scanning, try on something like this: a prize
> for the first group to train any group of organisms, then scan those
> organisms with some mostly automated process, simulate at least the
> trained aspect of behavior, and reproduce the trained response in
> silico.  Nematodes are the most likely subject for something like
> that, though I wouldn't want to restrict it -- some researchers
> prefer other organisms.
> 

This is actually similar to what I suggested just the other day as a
means of testing an upload, but I mentioned rats instead of worms.

But you have offered an answer to a question I posed in the write up.
You don't believe mind uploading will be possible in the next 20
years? Why not? I'm not claiming it will be, I'm just not sure either
way.
Are you taking into account the exponential growth of
technology/knowledge? What about the accelerated innovation offering
prizes of this sort causes? (As I've said before: the contest isn't
about making the impossible possible, but about making thins happen
sooner than they would have otherwise).

-- 
Eric Zilli
Hasselmo Lab - Computational Neurophysiology
Center for Memory and Brain
Boston University
2 Cummington St.
Boston MA, 02215
digfarenough at gmail.com -- www.digfarenough.com