Whole brain emulation (sometimes called mind uploading or simply uploading) is the fine-grain modeling of the computational structure of the human brain.

Evaluation

80,000 Hours rates whole brain emulation a "potential highest priority area": an issue that, if more thoroughly examined, could rank as a top global challenge.^[1]

Further reading

Chalmers, David J. (2014) Uploading: A philosophical analysis, in Russell Blackford & Damien Broderick (eds.) Intelligence Unbound: The Future of Uploaded and Machine Minds, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 102–118.

Eth, Daniel, Juan-Carlos Foust & Brandon Whale (2013) The prospects of whole brain emulation within the next half-century, Journal of Artificial General Intelligence, vol. 4, pp. 130–152.

Hanson, Robin (2016) The Age of Em: Work, Love, and Life When Robots Rule the Earth, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sandberg, Anders (2013) Feasibility of whole brain emulation, in Vincent C. Müller (ed.) Philosophy and Theory of Artificial Intelligence, Berlin: Springer, pp. 251–264.

Sandberg, Anders (2014) Ethics of brain emulations, Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, vol. 26, pp. 439–457.

Sandberg, Anders & Nick Bostrom (2008) Whole Brain Emulation: A Roadmap.

Shulman, Carl (2012) Could we use untrustworthy human brain emulations to make trustworthy ones?, The Fifth Conference on Artificial General Intelligence, December 11.

Related entries

^{^}
80,000 Hours (2022) Our current list of pressing world problems, 80,000 Hours.