California startup plans to digitize the brain, but for this he must kill his clients

The company promises to keep users' brains intact for centuries in the hope of one day to digitize it - but for that they will have to be killed.

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In March, 2018, the next Demonstration Day of the most influential business incubator of Silicon Valley will be held And Combinator, in which representatives of various start-ups will speak. But one project stands out from the rest: the company Nectome is going to “freeze” the client's brain and save all the information that is in it. And then find a way to digitize this data and recreate the human mind, writes TJournal.

There are several obstacles - for this, the company must kill the client, and there is still no way to load the mind into the cloud. Edition MIT Technology Review talked about the project and its prospects with the head Netcome Robert McIntyre (Robert McIntyre) and well-known neuroscientists.

"Freeze" of the brain

Company Nectome in 2016, several researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) were founded. Scientists hope to find a commercial application of the chemical process of brain preservation they have developed: during the "freezing" of its cells, they practically turn into glass. This allows you to save a connection - a map of neural connections in the brain.

The startup collaborates with one of the best neuroscientists at MIT and in a few years won two large federal grants for preserving the brain of a rabbit and a pig.

Several years ago, other companies were already developing cryogenic capsules that should save a person for centuries. For example, in Arizona the foundation Alcor life extension stores more 150 bodies and heads, including famous baseball player Ted Williams. But all these projects are united by the fact that they work with already dead people.

In case of Nectome A startup needs only a “fresh” brain - therefore, it is necessary to actually kill the user during the chemical process. There is no other way out: the founders of the company immediately stated that their product was "fatal on 100%". There is no opportunity to fully “revive” the brain in the future either, but this does not mean that the human mind in theory cannot be “transferred” somewhere else.

In 2018 year Nectome got interested And Combinator. His head, Sam Altman, wanted to join the project and someday give his brain to freeze. “I think that later my mind will be loaded into the cloud,” he noted.

According to MIT Technology Review, a similar plan is with the creators of a startup. One of the goals for the distant future is to learn how to scan a frozen brain and create its computer simulation. Around the same idea was built an episode of the Black Mirror series, where the minds of people were “sent” to the virtual city of San Junipero, in which they could become young and healthy again.

“If the brain is dead, then it’s like a computer off. But this does not mean that there is no information in it, ”said neuroscientist Ken Hayworth (Ken hayworth), who heads the brain conservation fund. According to him, if it is possible to somehow restore memory and other data from the “frozen” brain, then at least in a hundred years. At the same time, there are many unknown factors, for example, while there are no technologies capable of somehow carrying out a “mind load”.

Deadly business

MacIntyre is sure that all services are absolutely legal, although they end in the death of the user. The startup consulted lawyers familiar with the laws of California: legalizing euthanasia there in 2015. “For clients, our process will be equal to suicide with the help of a doctor,” he added.

Therefore, the creators Nectome they plan to talk with terminally ill patients so that they voluntarily participate in the project. They will be allowed to "pump up" themselves with embalming chemicals through the carotid artery, while they are still alive, although they are under anesthesia. In the near future this will not happen - the project will be in development for at least a few more years.

While the service to save the brain is not available for purchase. But the company offered potential customers to pay a deposit in 10 thousand dollars and get on a waiting list. At any time, you can change your mind and withdraw funds from the project. Altman became one of the contributors.

Thin line

In February, 2018, the creators Nectome conducted a trial procedure: they received the body of a woman who donated it to science, and began the process of preserving the brain two hours after his death. This was the first demonstration of their technology "freezing" on the human brain: the drugs were injected for six hours right in the morgue.

The next stage is the application of the procedure on a person ready for euthanasia. But, according to Hayworth, it is this step that will lead to large-scale ethical reasoning. Another neuroscientist, Michael Hendrix, joined the criticism, saying that the people of the future would be “shocked that the richest people of the 21 century tried to live forever with the help of descendants”.

“If you are like me and think that“ brain loading ”on the servers will happen once, then there is nothing like that here. But it may look like you are luring someone to commit suicide in order to save the brain for years. This is a very thin line. Maybe, Nectome has already crossed it,” says Ken Hayworth, president of the Brain Conservation Foundation.

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