Core Memory The Next Step Toward Understanding The Nature Of Intelligence - EP 49 Sebastian Seung
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Dec 17, 2025 Sebastian Seung, a neuroscientist and professor at Princeton, enthralls listeners with his groundbreaking work on brain mapping and intelligence. He unveils his startup, Memazing, aiming to create digital brains modeled on animal connectomes. The discussion veers into AI's role in tracing neurons and the complexities of human brain emulation. Seung also explores the philosophical implications of mind uploading and humanity's quest for transcendence through technology. Join him as he merges cutting-edge science with profound existential questions!
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Connectome As A Complete Wiring Map
- A connectome is a detailed map of every neuron and synapse in a brain, like replacing cities with neurons and flights with synapses.
- Even small brains have immense complexity, making connectomes huge but conceptually clarifying.
The Superhuman Fly Slicing Feat
- Rick Fetter cut a fly brain into 7,000 slices each a thousand times thinner than a human hair, an extraordinary technical feat.
- Those slices under an electron microscope produced images as tangled as a bowl of spaghetti to be reconstructed into a map.
AI Enables Tracing At Scale
- AI now accelerates tracing neurons through huge image stacks, reducing an impossible human task to something feasible with human proofreading.
- Final connectomes still need humans to correct AI mistakes, making the process hybrid not fully automated.