Wormy

The human brain is far too complex for practical creation of a virtual model. Too many trillions of cells and connections. So a group of scientists have decided to start by modeling a simple worm, one with mere thousands of cells and connections. Their current progress is available for download as open source software.

The project is an attempt to create true artificial intelligence: a conscious (though not necessarily self-aware) entity which exists as a virtual construct rather than mere lines of code. Essentially, every A.I. in use today is little more than a complicated variant of the ELIZA program developed in the early 1960s at MIT: purely reactive, limited in its decisions to the branches created by the programmer. True learning intelligences have thus far eluded conversion into virtuality. Perhaps this is the first step.

Phase two will involve virtual replication of the brain of a slightly more complex life form: homo politicus. Proper containment procedures will be necessary, of course, lest it escape into the wild and wreak havoc amongst the higher life forms of the planet. Oops... too late.