Bluebrain: The valuable question--How?

When I was a little child, I was always asking "Why" questions. "Why is the sky blue?" "Why is the grass green?" "Why does [insert noun here] work the way it does?"

The problem, of course, is that those aren't "Why" questions. They are "How" questions. There is no "Why" to the sky being blue--it is nonsensical. There is only a "How?" (relating to differing wavelengths of light and it's diffusion among specific molecules). How is a powerful question, and it is one of the single most important questions we have asked as a human race since even before the very first fire was lit and harnessed by a human being. Our necessity to continually ask, "How?" has led us to running water, printed books, beautiful music, electricity & communication systems, and even to begin our reach into space. There is no doubt about it: Asking "How?" is powerful and important.

Which is part of what makes me so excited about so many of the new developments in the fields of Neuroscience and Artificial intelligence today. Because, for all of our incessant questioning in those areas, our "How?"s have garnered little substance. Which is where the "Bluebrain" project comes in. It is a project to attempt to model a virtual human brain by 2020. Below is a video in case you're interested. It's a mini-documentary, so I warn you now: You will get bored unless you are interested in "How" the brain works, "How" our consciousness comes to be, and the many many "How"s of the possible nature of a soul. If, as curious and tenacious an asker of "how" as I am, you persevere and watch the "mini-documentary" through to it's end, I hope you'll be as interested in the project as I am.

Bluebrain | Year One from Couple 3 Films on Vimeo.