The human brain replicated in 10 years?

According to an article in Science Daily, yes, that's possible. An excerpt:

The apparent complexity of the human mind is not a barrier to building a 'replica' brain, claims Professor Markram [of the Brain Mind Institute in Switzerland]. "The brain is of course extremely complex because it has trillions of synapses, billions of neurons, millions of proteins, and thousands of genes. But they are still finite in number. Today's technology is already highly sophisticated and it allows us to reverse engineer the brain rapidly." An example of the capability already in place is that today's robots can do screenings and mappings tens of thousands of times faster than human scientists and technicians.

Another hurdle on the path to a model human brain is that 100 years of neuroscience discovery has led to millions of fragments of data and knowledge that have never been brought together and exploited fully. "Actually no one even knows what we already understand about the brain," says Professor Markram. "A model would serve to bring this all together and then allow anyone to test whatever theory you want about the brain."

. . .

[Professor Markram continued,] "As we progress we are learning about design secrets of our brains which were unimaginable before. In fact the brain uses some simple rules to solve highly complex problems and extracting each of these rules one by one is very exciting. For example we have been surprised at finding simple design principles that allow billions of neurons to connect to each other. I think we will understand how the brain is designed and works before we have finished building it."

The opportunities for this neuroscience research challenge are immense explains Professor Markram: "A brain model will sit on a massive supercomputer and serve as a kind of educational and diagnostic service to society. As the industrial revolution in science progresses we will generate more data than anyone can track or any computer can store, so models that can absorb it are simply unavoidable. It is also essential to build models when it comes to treating brain diseases affecting around two billion people. At present, there is no brain disease for which we really understand what has gone wrong in the processing, in the circuits, neurons or synapses. It is also important if we are to replace the need for the millions of animal experiments each year for brain research."

There's more at the link.

It sounds like a fascinating field of research: but there's one issue that puzzles me. Is it possible to separate the human brain in its neurological, synapse-firing sense from all the other elements that make up our personality? Aren't they innately part of the human brain? Is it possible to have an 'artificial brain' that won't display personality traits, moods, emotions, etc.? If it doesn't have those elements, can it be truly - fully - a 'human' brain? And if it does have them, how will it be possible to work with it in a purely neurological sense, isolating it from those elements?

Just speculation, I know, and I'm sure the scientists have answers for those questions (or they'll just laugh at them). Still, the thought of an artificial brain with Charles Manson's personality . . . ugh! [Shudder!]

Peter