An influential group of European neuroscientists is threatening to boycott the Human Brain Project (HBP), the hugely ambitious plan to map the entire human brain in computer models that is slated to receive up to €1 billion in funding from the European Union and its member countries. An open letter published today that has so far received 213 signatures sharply criticizes the project for having a narrow focus, questions the “quality of the governance,” and calls for a tough review and more independent oversight. Without that, they say they will no longer apply for HBP funding.
But Henry Markram of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, who leads the project, says the signatories have trouble accepting the “methodological paradigm shift” toward computer modeling that the project embodies; he adds that many more neuroscientists still support the project. (1)
How interesting.
Two donkeys fighting in a stranger’s barn…
The one, does not like the “governance”. As if the quest for the truth is related to such issues. If everything else with that project if fine, could that be a reason for bycotting it? Money. Number 1 plague of science today…
The other believes others will follow for liking the “paradigm shift” towards computer modelling. What he does not understand is that a new paradigm shift would be away from anything having to do with brain analysis and neuron activity data recording – towards a more immaterial model of mind. How can a material product the immaterial? How can an electron become “thought” or “consciousness”? Modelling or no modelling, it matters not. Walking down the wrong way will lead you to the wrong place, no matter how you walk. Materialism. Number 2 plague of science today.
Let’s try to think differently.
And the Human MIND Project might finally start…
