The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (102 page)

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Authors: Ray Kurzweil

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24
. See note 172 in
chapter 5
for an algorithmic description of neural nets.

25
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Neuron
27 (2000): 15–21.

26
. K. M. O’Craven and R. L. Savoy, “Voluntary Attention Can Modulate fMRI Activity in Human MT/MST,”
Investigational Ophthalmological Vision Science
36 (1995): S856 (supp.).

27
. Marvin Minsky and Seymour Papert,
Perceptrons
(Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1969).

28
. Frank Rosenblatt, Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory, “The Perceptron: A Probabilistic Model for Information Storage and Organization in the Brain,”
Psychological
Review
65.6 (1958): 386–408; see Wikipedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptron
.

29
. O. Sporns, G. Tononi, and G. M. Edelman, “Connectivity and Complexity: The Relationship Between Neuroanatomy and Brain Dynamics,”
Neural Networks
13.8–9 (2000): 909–22.

30
. R. H. Hahnloser et al., “Digital Selection and Analogue Amplification Coexist in a Cortex-Inspired Silicon Circuit,”
Nature
405.6789 (June 22, 2000): 947–51; “MIT and Bell Labs Researchers Create Electronic Circuit That Mimics the Brain’s Circuitry,”
MIT News
, June 21, 2000,
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/nr/2000/machinebrain.html
.

31
. Manuel Trajtenberg,
Economic Analysis of Product Innovation: The Case of CT Scanners
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990); Michael H. Friebe, Ph.D., president, CEO, NEUROMED GmbH; P-M. L. Robitaille, A. M. Abduljalil, and A. Kangarlu, “Ultra High Resolution Imaging of the Human Head at 8 Tesla: 2K × 2K for Y2K,”
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24.1 (January–February 2000): 2–8.

32
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
100.7 (April 1, 2003): 3550–52,
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/100/7/3550
. See also Seong-Gi Kim et al., “Localized Cerebral Blood Flow Response at Submillimeter Columnar Resolution,”
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98.19 (September 11, 2001): 10904–9,
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.

33
. K. K. Kwong et al., “Dynamic Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Human Brain Activity During Primary Sensory Stimulation,”
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34
. C. S. Roy and C. S. Sherrington, “On the Regulation of the Blood Supply of the Brain,”
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11 (1890): 85–105.

35
. M. I. Posner et al., “Localization of Cognitive Operations in the Human Brain,”
Science
240.4859 (June 17, 1988): 1627–31.

36
. F. M. Mottaghy et al., “Facilitation of Picture Naming after Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation,”
Neurology
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37
. Daithí Ó hAnluain, “TMS: Twilight Zone Science?”
Wired News
, April 18, 2002,
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.

38
. Lawrence Osborne, “Savant for a Day,”
New York Times Magazine
, June 22, 2003, available at
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.

39
. Bruce H. McCormick, “Brain Tissue Scanner Enables Brain Microstructure Surveys,”
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44–46 (2002): 1113–18; Bruce H. McCormick, “Design of a Brain Tissue Scanner,”
Neurocomputing
26–27 (1999): 1025–32; Bruce H. McCormick, “Development of the Brain Tissue Scanner,”
Brain Networks Laboratory Technical Report
, Texas A&M University Department of Computer Science, College Station, Tex., March 18, 2002,
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.

40.
Leif Finkel et al.,“Meso-scale Optical Brain Imaging of Perceptual Learning,” University of Pennsylvania grant 2000–01737 (2000).

41.
E. Callaway and R. Yuste, “Stimulating Neurons with Light,”
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42.
B. L. Sabatini and K. Svoboda, “Analysis of Calcium Channels in Single Spines Using Optical Fluctuation Analysis,”
Nature
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43.
John Whitfield, “Lasers Operate Inside Single Cells,”
[email protected]
, October 6, 2003,
http://www.nature.com/nsu/030929/030929-12.html
(subscription required). Mazur’s lab:
http://mazur-www.harvard.edu/research/
. Jason M. Samonds and A. B. Bonds, “From Another Angle: Differences in Cortical Coding Between Fine and Coarse Discrimination of Orientation,”
Journal of Neurophysiology
91 (2004): 1193–1202.

44.
Robert A. Freitas Jr.,
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, vol. 2A,
Biocompatibility
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.

45.
Robert A. Freitas Jr.,
Nanomedicine
, vol. 1,
Basic Capabilities
, section 7.3, “Communication Networks” (Georgetown, Tex.: Landes Bioscience, 1999), pp. 186–88,
http://www.nanomedicine.com/NMI/7.3.htm
.

46.
Robert A. Freitas Jr.,
Nanomedicine
, vol. 1,
Basic Capabilities
, section 9.4.4.3, “Intercellular Passage” (Georgetown, Tex.: Landes Bioscience, 1999), pp. 320–21,
http://www.nanomedicine.com/NMI/9.4.4.3.htm#p2
.

47.
Keith L. Black, M.D., and Nagendra S. Ningaraj, “Modulation of Brain Tumor Capillaries for Enhanced Drug Delivery Selectively to Brain Tumor,”
Cancer Control
11.3 (May/June 2004): 165–73,
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.

48.
Robert A. Freitas Jr.,
Nanomedicine
, vol. 1,
Basic Capabilities
, section 4.1, “Nanosensor Technology” (Georgetown, Tex.: Landes Bioscience, 1999), p. 93,
http://www.nanomedicine.com/NMI/4.1.htm
.

49.
Conference on Advanced Nanotechnology (
http://www.foresight.org/Conferences/AdvNano2004/index.html
), NanoBioTech Congress and Exhibition (
http://www. nanobiotec.de/
), NanoBusiness Trends in Nanotechnology (
http://www.nano event.com/
), and NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Trade Show (
http://www.nsti.org/events.html
).

50.
Peter D. Kramer,
Listening to Prozac
(New York: Viking, 1993).

51.
LeDoux’s research is on the brain regions that deal with threatening stimuli, of which the central player is the amygdala, an almond-shaped region of neurons located at the base of the brain. The amygdala stores memories of threatening stimuli and controls responses having to do with fear.

MIT brain researcher Tomaso Poggio points out that “synaptic plasticity is one hardware substratum for learning but it may be important to emphasize that learning is much more than memory.” See T. Poggio and E. Bizzi, “Generalization
in Vision and Motor Control,”
Nature
431 (2004): 768–74. See also E. Benson, “The Synaptic Self,”
APA Online
, November 2002,
http://www.apa.org/monitor/nov02/synaptic.html
.

52.
Anthony J. Bell, “Levels and Loops: The Future of Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience,”
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B
354.1352 (December 29, 1999): 2013–20,
http://www.cnl.salk.edu/~tony/ptrsl.pdf
.

53.
Peter Dayan and Larry Abbott,
Theoretical Neuroscience: Computational and Mathematical Modeling of Neural Systems
(Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2001).

54.
D. O. Hebb,
The Organization of Behavior: A Neuropsychological Theory
(New York:Wiley, 1949).

55.
Michael Domjan and Barbara Burkhard,
The Principles of Learning and Behavior
, 3d ed. (Pacific Grove, Calif.: Brooks/Cole, 1993).

56.
J. Quintana and J. M. Fuster, “From Perception to Action: Temporal Integrative Functions of Prefrontal and Parietal Neurons,”
Cerebral Cortex
9.3 (April–May 1999): 213–21; W. F. Asaad, G. Rainer, and E. K. Miller, “Neural Activity in the Primate Prefrontal Cortex During Associative Learning,”
Neuron
21.6 (December 1998): 1399–1407.

57.
G. G. Turrigiano et al.,“Activity-Dependent Scaling of Quantal Amplitude in Neo-cortical Neurons,”
Nature
391.6670 (February 26, 1998): 892–96; R. J. O’Brien et al., “Activity-Dependent Modulation of Synaptic AMPA Receptor Accumulation,”
Neuron
21.5 (November 1998): 1067–78.

58.
From “A New Window to View How Experiences Rewire the Brain,” Howard Hughes Medical Institute (December 19, 2002),
http://www.hhmi.org/news/svoboda2.html
. See also J. T. Trachtenberg et al., “Long-Term in Vivo Imaging of Experience-Dependent Synaptic Plasticity in Adult Cortex,”
Nature
420.6917 (December 2002): 788–94,
http://cpmcnet.columbia.edu/dept/physio/physio2/
Trachtenberg_NATURE.pdf
; and Karen Zita and Karel Svoboda,“Activity-Dependent Synaptogenesis in the Adult Mammalian Cortex,”
Neuron
35.6 (September 2002): 1015–17,
http://svobodalab.cshl.edu/reprints/2414zito02neur.pdf
.

59.
See
http://whyfiles.org/184make_memory/4.html
. For more information on neuronal spines and memory, see J. Grutzendler et al., “Long-Term Dendritic Spine Stability in the Adult Cortex,”
Nature
420.6917 (Dec. 19–26, 2002): 812–16.

60.
S. R. Young and E. W. Rubel, “Embryogenesis of Arborization Pattern and Typography of Individual Axons in N. Laminaris of the Chicken Brain Stem,”
Journal of Comparative Neurology
254.4 (December 22, 1986): 425–59.

61.
Scott Makeig, “Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience Vision Overview,”
http://www.sccn.ucsd.edu/VisionOverview.html
.

62.
D. H. Hubel and T. N. Wiesel, “Binocular Interaction in Striate Cortex of Kittens Reared with Artificial Squint,”
Journal of Neurophysiology
28.6 (November 1965): 1041–59.

63.
Jeffrey M. Schwartz and Sharon Begley,
The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force
(New York: Regan Books, 2002). See also C. Xerri, M. Merzenich et al., “The Plasticity of Primary Somatosensory Cortex Paralleling
Sensorimotor Skill Recovery from Stroke in Adult Monkeys,”
The Journal of Neurophysiology
, 79.4 (April 1980): 2119–48. See also S. Begley, “Survival of the Busiest,”
Wall Street Journal
, October 11, 2002,
http://webreprints.djreprints.com/606120211414.html
.

64.
Paula Tallal et al., “Language Comprehension in Language-Learning Impaired Children Improved with Acoustically Modified Speech,”
Science
271 (January 5, 1996): 81–84. Paula Tallal is Board of Governors Professor of Neuroscience and codirector of the CMBN (Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience) at Rutgers University, and cofounder and director of SCIL (Scientific Learning Corporation); see
http://www.cmbn.rutgers.edu/faculty/tallal.html
. See also Paula Tallal, “Language Learning Impairment: Integrating Research and Remediation,”
New Horizons for Learning
4.4 (August–September 1998),
http://www.new horizons.org/neuro/tallal.htm
; A. Pascual-Leone, “The Brain That Plays Music and Is Changed by It,”
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
930 (June 2001): 315–29. See also note 63 above.

65.
F. A. Wilson, S. P. Scalaidhe, and P. S. Goldman-Rakic, “Dissociation of Object and Spatial Processing Domains in Primate Prefrontal Cortex.”
Science
260.5116 (June 25, 1993): 1955–58.

66.
C. Buechel, J. T. Coull, and K. J. Friston,“The Predictive Value of Changes in Effective Connectivity for Human Learning,”
Science
283.5407 (March 5, 1999): 1538–41.

67.
They produced dramatic images of brain cells forming temporary and permanent connections in response to various stimuli, illustrating structural changes between neurons that, many scientists have long believed, take place when we store memories. “Pictures Reveal How Nerve Cells Form Connections to Store Short- and Long-Term Memories in Brain,” University of California, San Diego, November 29, 2001,
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/mccell. htm
; M. A. Colicos et al., “Remodeling of Synaptic Action Induced by Photo-conductive Stimulation,”
Cell
107.5 (November 30, 2001): 605–16. Video link:
http://www.qflux.net/NeuroStim01.rm
, Neural Silicon Interface—Quantum Flux.

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