I love technology and I’m enthusiastic about its future role in our lives. Most exciting to me right now is the research being done on the human brain.
One of the biggest projects currently under way is the Human Brain Project. More than 130 institutions are working together to build a model of the brain, which will be used to run simulations on supercomputers. This just might mean the end of mice, as test subjects anyway.
If you need a quick review of the brain, and you’ve got a smartphone or tablet, check out the 3D Brain app from the DNA Learning Center. You can spin the brain around to highlight specific regions and read up on each area.
For a good read on the subject, try Michio Kaku’s “The Future of the Mind.”
This book is highly recommended for sci-fi fans, as the author examines many advances in our understanding of the brain through the lens of popular sci-fi films and novels. But it will also appeal to those with an interest in neuroscience and the nature of consciousness itself.
For those alarmed by the rise of technology, this book may read like an apocalyptic horror novel starring malignant nanobots, mind control and rogue AI (artificial intelligence) and even as such makes for a great read.
Incidentally, I have a theory that Feodor Chin, the reader of the audio recording, is not a person but a highly sophisticated AI program. Perfect for the book, but you can’t fool me … yet.
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