mapping connectome

A major step in the progress of human civilization was the completion of the Human Genome Project which was a 13 year long project undertaken to map and sequence the entire human genetic code. Sequencing the genetic code provided evidence of humans sharing vast amounts of genetic information with apes and also led to useful practical applications from disease prediction/diagnosis via personalized gene analysis to disease treatment via gene therapy which is a method to help eliminate diseases at the root cellular level by eliminating the specific genetic information that causes the disease. A genome is essentially information that outlines biological life which can be stored and transmitted digitally like any other piece of information. I came across a book called ‘Future of The Mind’ authored by theoretical physicist Michio Kaku who mentions another ambitious and vastly more complicated project which is underway i.e. to map the entire neural pathways of the human brain to create a comprehensive information code called the connectome which encompasses the entire information structure of brain similar to how a genome encompasses the information structure of our genes. Mapping the connectome involves analyzing the brain (which has ~86 billion neuron cells) at the cellular level and mapping out all the different connections (which is ~1000 connection per neuron) for each of the 86 billion neurons. The current methodology of mapping the connectome involves using a high precision MRI machine to record microscopic details of neurons and its underlying connections. Successfully mapping the connectome can provide the holy grail of biological information which makes humans a vastly superior species by virtue of its biological intelligence. It can be argued that information is ultimately what gives value to biological life with a thought experiment where we have two assortments of the same element molecules where one assortment by virtue of specific ordering of the elemental molecules can give rise to a living organism with complex intelligence whereas the second assortment of the very same elemental molecules can be ordered in a disorganized manner leading to formation of something as trivial as a rock. If ordered information is the ultimate currency of life which is what probably gives rise to consciousness as well, mapping the connectome which could ultimately reduce individual humans to a digital sequence of 1s and 0s would be a highly transformative step (for better or for worse) in the chronology of human evolution. This presents a lot of interesting possibilities for the future as well as potential theories to explain the present reality. The possibilities include uploading our connectome once successfully mapped, into a computer as predicted by popular technologist Ray Kurzweil in his book ‘The Singularity is Near’, which could ensure a form of immortality where even if our biological bodies wither away due to uncontrollable cellular degradation, our consciousness (which is arguably the key essence of human life) can still survive for eternity provided there is energy and a computing host which will execute the information code of the connectome. If consciousness is ultimately a collection of information signals in the form of a connectome, we can theoretically transmit human consciousness across the universe through transmission mechanisms like lasers provided there is a recipient on the other end to capture and later execute the information signals thereby enabling humans to reproduce consciousness across spacetime. Intelligence and consciousness being reduced to information patterns can possibly explain the Fermi Paradox where we have not yet seen any physical evidence of alien intelligence in spite of there being a statistical probability of their existence. If alien intelligence does exist, it would have probably moved past biology and would ultimately exist in reality in the form a complex information pattern that represents a collective alien consciousness manifested in the form of planet-sized computers that consume energy to continuously process information and run simulations to likely serve a supernatural purpose.