JOIN USIn the Hollywood blockbuster ‘The Matrix’, human beings live in a simulated reality controlled by machines in a distant dystopian future. In the real world, a somewhat similar project to build the “the world’s first digital organism” using the computer-generated simulation of C elegans, a roundworm that lives in temperate soils, has got the scientific community excited.
At TedXBangalore 2015 that took place here on Sunday, Stephan Larson, Co-founder, OpenWorm, who started the project, said: “The idea to start the project came in 2010 when a friend of mine posted something about simulating the brains of an organism with 302 neurons of the C elegans.”
While scientists like Santiago Ramon Cajal made the first map of the brain with its numerous and complex neuron circuits, and others like James Watson and Francis Crick solved the structure of the DNA, Larson asked the audience how it would be if “our thoughts could be simulated and put up in a computer?”
While making a digital simulation of the brain is something that may still take time, a beginning has been made with the ‘OpenWorm’ science project. Present developments in software and computing technology have also made it possible to start thinking of such complex simulations, Larson said. “All the data has been put online and it is a collaborative effort,” he added.
With the realm of space science and exploration opening up to the private sector, there seem to be endless opportunities, according to Susmita Mohanty, a space entrepreneur. As a new-age entrepreneur, she has already started three companies in three different continents and was one of the speakers at the event. An area of space entrepreneurship she is presently exploring is space architecture and design. Building a collapsible space habitat and 3D-printed martian habitats are some of her latest works. A part of her education was sponsored by Arthur C Clarke, the great science fiction writer.
The session was capped off with an inspiring talk on endurance by well-known triathlete, Anu Vaidyanathan, followed by one on the origin and purpose of Aadhaar by Pramod Varma, Chief Architect, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).