A while back, I wrote a very speculative post about what would happen when all of the information contained in a human brain could somehow (by heretofore unknown technological wizardry) be reduced to a computer file–all the neurons, all their interconnections, all the thoughts, all the memories, everything. If it were possible, it would pose weird ethical quandaries that we have never had to confront before. I mused on some of those.

The New Computerized Brain

But, strange as strange can be, someone has done it! Not with a human brain yet, but with a real brain nonetheless: a fruit fly brain. It has “140,000 neurons and more than 50 million connections.” Not only is there a scientific paper published with this information, but a company is using it to “run a brain” in a computer simulated environment. This is very weird! They have a video of their fruit fly in action here:

Ethical Worries and Strange Brain Scenarios

Now that this type of brain science is not about possibility but only scale, the ethical problems come back. While true brain-computer interface technology could be very useful–say uploading useful knowledge, assisting patients with dementia, allowing a human to pilot a remote aircraft with only the brain–the ethical dilemmas are profound. I had worried before about potential hijacking of the human brain, perhaps uploading false memories, rewriting the past. Or, imagine a court case, where a person’s BRAIN file is demanded for evidence by the other side. Even weirder scenarios arise–could a priest ever allow his brain to be uploaded/downloaded or would that violate the Seal of Confession? Could your brain be uploaded against your will?

Fiction is Still Stranger than Truth

While I thought I had thought through a lot of potential issues, it turns out that we need near-future fiction writers to really get the work done. I found a very strange fictional story that explores some of the ethical conundrums with the potential upload of a BRAIN file. It is by a writer who goes by “qntm” about a character named Miguel Acevedo.

All the technological advancements make me wonder if the Amish were right, after all, but I feel like it might be too late for that.