Neuroscientist David Eagleman guest blogging on George’s Blog next week

Neuroscientist David Eagleman will be guest-blogging at George’s Sentient Developments next week, presumably sharing his thoughts on transhumanism and prospects for ‘silicon immortality.’

Dr. Eagleman is a neuroscientist at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX, where he directs the Laboratory for Perception and Action as well as the Initiative on Neuroscience and Law.

His interests focus largely on how the brain constructs reality and how different brains do so differently.  To this end he uses psychophysics, neuroimaging and computational simulations.

He is the author of several books, including the upcoming Dethronement, an exploration of the work the brain does behind the scenes, and Wednesday is Indigo Blue, a book about synesthesia, a condition in which the senses are mixed.

His research has been featured on Discovery Channel, History Channel, BBC, ABC, PBS, and in major print media.  Dr. Eagleman is the founder of several companies, and three years ago founded the Eagleman Prize in mathematics and physics.

He was a recent contributor to the Edge.org‘s Big Question, “What will change everything?,” to which he responded:

“While medicine will advance in the next half century, we are not on a crash-course for achieving immortality by curing all disease. Bodies simply wear down with use. We are on a crash-course, however, with technologies that let us store unthinkable amounts of data and run gargantuan simulations. Therefore, well before we understand how brains work, we will find ourselves able to digitally copy the brain’s structure and able to download the conscious mind into a computer.”

His book of fiction, Sum, debuted internationally this month.

It’s going to be an exciting and provocative week with David Eagleman on board. Don’t miss it.