Thread by @antonioregalado

“It is so unethical—I can’t describe how unethical it is.”

MIT says it won't be accepting any more money from Nectome, a startup promoting 100% fatal brain-preservation-for-future-uploading tech.

technologyreview.com/s/610743/mit-s…

Here is the grant in question. "WHOLE BRAIN NANOSCALE PRESERVATION/IMAGING" MIT/Boyden lab was a subcontractor.
projectreporter.nih.gov/project_info_d…

The research involved how to reconstruct "dense neural morphology" from imaging preserved brains. Along the lines of this paper. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

Nectome had developed a process for embalming brains. Whereas Boyden lab invented "expansion microscopy" whereby brain tissue is blown up to 10 to 20 times its original size, using chemicals like those found in diapers

The subcontract envisioned combining the two techs to yield new methods of tracing the neuronal connections and molecules in a slice of brain tissue. This is interesting basic science but also, per Nectome, a step towards "brain uploading"

Nectome says it wants to preserve people's brains for later uploading to the cloud. I did ask them if they planned to store previously expanded brains. Because, imagine a cryogenic warehouse of brains the size of dorm rooms.

They did not plan to do that. Here's our original story on Nectome. technologyreview.com/s/610456/a-sta…

Although MIT Media Lab says it's dropping out of the grant, its statement doesn't strongly repudiate Nectome, brain downloading idea, or cite the specific ethical issue (encouraging suicide). So it's not an apology or anything.

Full statement: media.mit.edu/posts/the-medi…