The case for emulating insect brains using anatomical "wiring diagrams" equipped with biophysical models of neuronal activity

TL;DR

This paper advocates for developing biologically realistic insect brain emulations as a practical intermediate step towards full human brain emulation, potentially accelerating progress in neuroscience, AI, and robotics within 20 years.

Contribution

It proposes that insect brain emulation can serve as a feasible intermediate goal to advance whole-brain emulation efforts and inspire broader scientific and technological progress.

Findings

Insect brain emulation could be achievable within 20 years.

IBEs can stimulate progress in neuroscience and AI.

Virtual insects could enable new scientific studies.

Abstract

Developing whole-brain emulation (WBE) technology would provide immense benefits across neuroscience, biomedicine, artificial intelligence, and robotics. At this time, constructing a simulated human brain lacks feasibility due to limited experimental data and limited computational resources. However, I suggest that progress towards this goal might be accelerated by working towards an intermediate objective, namely insect brain emulation (IBE). More specifically, this would entail creating biologically realistic simulations of entire insect nervous systems along with more approximate simulations of non-neuronal insect physiology to make "virtual insects." I argue that this could be realistically achievable within the next 20 years. I propose that developing emulations of insect brains will galvanize the global community of scientists, businesspeople, and policymakers towards pursuing the loftier goal of emulating the human brain. By demonstrating that WBE is possible via IBE, simulating mammalian brains and eventually the human brain may no longer be viewed as too radically ambitious to deserve substantial funding and resources. Furthermore, IBE will facilitate dramatic advances in cognitive neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and robotics through studies performed using virtual insects.