Zombie Brain Surgeon by Laura Barbosa

"One facet of the project certain to create controversy is that the scientists are also developing technologies that manipulate neurons, raising the specter not just of mind reading, but mind control. The scientists argue that it is in controlling neurons that they can gain valuable information on brain function."
From Connecting the Neural Dots by By JOHN MARKOFF
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/26/science/proposed-brain-mapping-project-faces-significant-hurdles.html?src=rechp

Brain:

Well, I’m going to be mapped.

Gene:

You mean your gray matter, right?

Brain:

Right.

Gene:

Well, I’ve already been mapped.

Brain:

Yes, all of you was mapped in the Genome.

Gene:

I wonder what name they will give to your mapping?

Brain:

Probably something mundane like “A Map of the Human Brain”, or “Noggin at Heaven’s Door”.

Gene:

Science will finally bump off Oscar Wilde’s words: “The last mystery is oneself.”

Brain:

Men have always wanted to be like gods.

They dissect and analyze everything.

They want to get to the bottom of everything:

Oceans, galaxies, genes, brains…

Gene:

Right.

Brain:

Well, I’m going to go get a haircut before they start mapping me.

I want to look presentable.

Gene:

They’re probably going to shave your head. So, do it first, and tattoo a happy face on top.

Brain:

Good idea.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Gene:

No problem.

Bon voyage!

IT’S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES!

The Obama administration is planning a decade-long scientific effort to examine the workings of the human brain and build a comprehensive map of its activity, seeking to do for the brain what the Human Genome Project did for genetics.

The advent of new technology that allows scientists to identify firing neurons in the brain has led to numerous brain research projects around the world. Yet the brain remains one of the greatest scientific mysteries.

Composed of roughly 100 billion neurons that each electrically “spike” in response to outside stimuli, as well as in vast ensembles based on conscious and unconscious activity, the human brain is so complex that scientists have not yet found a way to record the activity of more than a small number of neurons at once, and in most cases that is done invasively with physical probes.

But a group of nanotechnologists and neuroscientists say they believe that technologies are at hand to make it possible to observe and gain a more complete understanding of the brain, and to do it less intrusively.

In June in the journal Neuron, six leading scientists proposed pursuing a number of new approaches for mapping the brain.

One possibility is to build a complete model map of brain activity by creating fleets of molecule-size machines to noninvasively act as sensors to measure and store brain activity at the cellular level. The proposal envisions using synthetic DNA as a storage mechanism for brain activity.

The initiative will be organized by the Office of Science and Technology Policy, according to scientists who have participated in planning meetings.

The National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Science Foundation will also participate in the project, the scientists said, as will private foundations like the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Chase, Md., and the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle.

A meeting held on Jan. 17 at the California Institute of Technology was attended by the three government agencies, as well as neuroscientists, nanoscientists and representatives from Google, Microsoft and Qualcomm. According to a summary of the meeting, it was held to determine whether computing facilities existed to capture and analyze the vast amounts of data that would come from the project. The scientists and technologists concluded that they did.

They also said that a series of national brain “observatories” should be created as part of the project, like astronomical observatories.