Max Schons is a physician and neuroscientist. He conducts research at the intersection of biotechnology and artificial intelligence and explains what brain emulation is and where it has already reached its first milestones today. In our conversation, he shows what possibilities digital brains open up for science, medicine, and AI – and which ethical, technical, and societal challenges still lie ahead of us.
As a pioneer in Futures Management, I am interested in disruptive technologies and their long-term significance for society, science, and the economy. One of these technologies is brain emulation: not merely a computer model, but the digital replication of biological brains, which could help us better understand consciousness, memory, disease, and intelligent behavior, and even develop novel forms of thinking.