The European Union, recently announced it was funding a $1.3 billion project to build a human brain on a silicon substrate. That’s about 1 1/2 cents per neuron. Swiss neuroscientist Henry Markham, who is behind the Human Brain Project, has already started work on building a simulated rat brain

At the same time, getting machines to think more like humans is also progressing. Especially in the realm of human-computer interfaces. Especially in the realm of human-computer interfaces. Researchers are figuring out ways for victims of paralysis to control their artificial hands with brainwaves or even walk with exoskeletons.

Discovery News Article

Mind uploading, is the hypothetical process of transferring or copying a conscious mind from a brain to a non-biological substrate by scanning and mapping a biological brain in detail and copying its state into a computer system or another computational device. The computer would have to run a simulation model so faithful to the original that it would behave in essentially the same way as the original brain. Alternatively, the simulated mind could be assumed to reside in a computer inside or connected to a humanoid robot or a biological body, replacing its brain.