‘This is one of the three grand challenges for humanity. We need to understand earth, space and the brain. We need to understand what makes us human.’ Markram told Germany's Spiegel magazine.
The scientists and researchers working with the Human Brain Project believe that if they secure the funding, they will be able to replicate mankind's most vital organ in 12 years.
Markram was interviewed at this site in 2009
Markram also was critical of an IBM claim of cat scale brain emulation.
The Blue brain project page
Summary of the goals and method of the Human Brain Project. They plan to use multi-level simulation to reduce the computing challenge of the simulation
Human Brain project website
In a presentation from June 2010, Markram makes that case that multilevel simulation will enable brain emulation with exascale supercomputers
The applications for it if successful are enormous; drug companies for instance would be able to dramatically shorten testing times by bypassing humans to test new medicaments on the computer model.
Supercomputers at the Jülich Research Center near Cologne are earmarked to play a vital role in the research which Makram says will involve ‘a tsunami of data.’
Jülich neuroscientist Katrin Amunts has begun work on a detailed atlas of the brain which involved slicing one into 8,000 parts which were then digitalized with a scanner.
Makram added: ‘It is not impossible to build a human brain. We can do it in just over 10 years.
‘This will, when successful, help two billion people annually who suffer from some type of brain impairment.’
The project has already created an artificial neocortical column which is unique to mammals
Henry Markram TED Talk and other info
Henry Markram says the mysteries of the mind can be solved -- soon. Mental illness, memory, perception: they're made of neurons and electric signals, and he plans to find them with a supercomputer that models all the brain's 100,000,000,000,000 synapses.
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