WBE involves (1) measuring a connectome a.k.a. brain scanning, (2) turning that data into a working human emulation with the same human drives, memories, goals, etc. I’m generally optimistic about (1) and pessimistic about (2)—I think (2) is both much harder and much less useful for x-risk reduction than it might seem. But I also think there’s a great x-risk reduction case for making progress towards (1), even setting (2) aside. And after talking to a couple orgs in this space, I think massive progress on (1) is possible in the 2020s and certainly the 2030s.
For Whole Brain Emulation (WBE):
WBE involves (1) measuring a connectome a.k.a. brain scanning, (2) turning that data into a working human emulation with the same human drives, memories, goals, etc. I’m generally optimistic about (1) and pessimistic about (2)—I think (2) is both much harder and much less useful for x-risk reduction than it might seem. But I also think there’s a great x-risk reduction case for making progress towards (1), even setting (2) aside. And after talking to a couple orgs in this space, I think massive progress on (1) is possible in the 2020s and certainly the 2030s.
See my posts Connectomics seems great from an AI x-risk perspective and 8 Examples informing my pessimism on uploading without reverse engineering for more on all that. The last section of the former post also lists two more organizations that seem worthy of consideration for funding in this space.
Investing in Eon Systems looks much more promising than donating to Carbon Copies.
I see maybe a 3% chance that they’ll succeed at WBE soon enough to provide help with AI x-risk.