tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22093933.post4751565633102384613..comments2009-07-30T00:25:56.393-05:00Derichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16617204535017208765noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22093933.post-69682795685478971172009-07-30T00:25:56.393-05:002009-07-30T00:25:56.393-05:00Idle thoughts department: I&#39;ve had this idea of sequentially shaving very thin brain layers from a frozen brain and scanning each layer with lasers to produce a 3D map of the cells. I&#39;d also want to determine the type of synapse maybe via a mix of laser colors. A blueray disk drive has a laser spot focussed to about half a micrometre which is about half the width of a nerve (I believe.) <br /><br />Then upload it to a computer, analyse the connections, maybe detect redundant parallel circuits to reduce the complexity by 98% or something, model the interfaces (hormones, senses, muscles, etc), convert to a program and run it on a massively parallel computer. Easy!<br /><br />Questions: Could it keep up with real time? I guess not. Would it think? What would it think? Is is cruel? (It would be a second life for someone who was dead so I&#39;d think they might like the idea.) What would the ethics committee say?jimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07415199338332642534noreply@blogger.com