THE FICTION OF SCIENCE OR THE BLUE BRAIN PROJECT

When the novel was first published in 1818, its sub-title was its message: "The Modern Prometheus." It's better known simply as "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley. She was but 18 when she began drafting it; now almost 200 years later, her haunting idea haunts on.

It is simply this -- the dangers sometime inherent in even the best of scientific intentions. Often described as the law of unintended consequences.

Science-fiction writers have been probing this conundrum for generations ever since. Luminaries like H. G. Wells ["The Time Machines"], Aldous Huxley ["Brave New World"], and George Orwell ["1984"] among them. Today Hollywood simply calls them Techno-Thrillers.

We are fancifully but fearfully reminded what can happen when the good scientist's dreams slip off the track into nightmares. The modern computer has percolated scores of film scenarios about master-minds harnessing the staggering powers of computer banks and sky-satellites for personal purposes. Control of the world's wealth...the world's armies...the world's leaders.

Now a bold new scientific venture is quietly operational in Switzerland called the Blue Brain Project. Under project director Henry Markram, it seeks to create a synthetic human brain. To replicate the tens of billions of neurons which go into the makeup of our brains. But while our brains are only a few small pounds, the Project has thus far put into play a network of super-computers that take up three football-fields of space. It seeks to do some of the work of evolution (or God) within three years.

One wonders what young Mary might think of this? What might her dedicated Dr Frankenstein say of this? What might Stephen Spielberg film of this? Time -- or perhaps coincidence -- well tell us within these three years. Once up and running, Professor Markram (and all the ghosts of all the scientists before him) may get the chance to answer some long-stading neocortical microstructure questions:

* will this brain achieve consciousness?
* if so, will it thereby achieve a soul?
* if that, have we become god?
* if not, will it?