Obama Seeking to Boost Study of Human Brain

[jsr]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/18/science/project-seeks-to-build-map-of-human-brain.html

Obama Seeking to Boost Study of Human Brain
By JOHN MARKOFF

The Obama administration is planning a decade-long scientific effort to examine the workings of the human brain and build a comprehensive map of its activity, seeking to do for the brain what the Human Genome Project did for genetics.

The project, which the administration has been looking to unveil as early as March, will include federal agencies, private foundations and teams of neuroscientists and nanoscientists in a concerted effort to advance the knowledge of the brain’s billions of neurons and gain greater insights into perception, actions and, ultimately, consciousness.

Scientists with the highest hopes for the project also see it as a way to develop the technology essential to understanding diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, as well as to find new therapies for a variety of mental illnesses.

Moreover, the project holds the potential of paving the way for advances in artificial intelligence.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

1. Queue the right-wing conspiracy theories.

[Dpm12]

2. The RW

is gonna find some way to bitch about this

[Gorp]

3. Lets just hope he doesn't include the GOP side of the aisle.

That would be a waste of money and time.