Seung, Sebastian: CONNECTOME

Seung, Sebastian. Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are. New York:Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012.

Academic work on brain science stressing brain's "connectome," i.e., the configuration of connections conceptually analogous to the genome. A book review by Daniel J. Levitin in The Wall Street Journal for 4 Feb. 2012 concludes, "The last two chapters of 'Connectome' will be catnip for futurists, as Mr. Seung lays out two possible benefits of understanding connectomes: the repair of cryogenically frozen brains and subsequent restoration of consciousness and the uploading of consciousness into computer simulations. In the best (but unlikely) case, either could lead to cognitive immortality." Levitin finds such "claims […] far-fetched," but "beautifully explained and analyzed," and obviously relevant for the motif in SF of stored consciousness, as, e.g., in F. Pohl's Heechee series <http://tinyurl.com/8vokc4m>.

9. BACK, RDE,02/IX/12