Neuristor

Duplicating the brain:

Computing hardware is composed of a series of binary switches; they're either on or off. The other piece of computational hardware we're familiar with, the brain, doesn't work anything like that. Rather than being on or off, individual neurons exhibit brief spikes of activity, and encode information in the pattern and timing of these spikes. The differences between the two have made it difficult to model neurons using computer hardware. In fact, the recent, successful generation of a flexible neural system required that each neuron be modeled separately in software in order to get the sort of spiking behavior real neurons display.

But researchers may have figured out a way to create a chip that spikes. The people at HP labs who have been working on memristors have figured out a combination of memristors and capacitors that can create a spiking output pattern. Although these spikes appear to be more regular than the ones produced by actual neurons, it might be possible to create versions that are a bit more variable than this one. And, more significantly, it should be possible to fabricate them in large numbers, possibly right on a silicon chip.

I have absolutely no doubt that by the end of this century, humans will be able to duplicate ourselves -- right down to the level of individual cells, just as Philip K. Dick predicted 44 years ago. It is very possible that the last natural and purely biological generation of humans will be born in the 21st century. At that point, homo sapiens will become something else. What, I don't know.

I am simultaneously disappointed and relieved that I won't be around to see it. Disappointed because I'm a technophile at heart. Relieved because I prefer that dystopian futures be confined to the realm of books which I can set aside at will; I've no desire to live in such a reality. It concerns me that so many people seem to be not only unafraid of such a reality, but actually ready and willing to embrace it.

On the other hand, I suppose it could be just another version of the story that is as old as humanity: I'm getting old and set in my ways. We're all born into a world we don't understand; if we live long enough, we'll die in a world we don't understand.