The current accepted school of thought is that consciousness in an “epiphenomena.” What this means is that it is a product of the workings of the brain and “springs out” of the the brain’s interactions the same way that music “springs out” of the vibrations of strings.

Given this reduction of consciousness to purely physical terms, we can do away with concepts of the “soul” or the “spirit” and state that given the right hardware, consciousness will form automatically. It is true however, that if we were to try and build this hardware (and create the states of the hardware) using a blueprint that would end in a conscious entity, we would be frustrated by the complexity.

But Henry Markram – Director of the Blue Brain Project claims that we can have functioning Human Brain within 10 years! He says that his team has already had some success in trying to replicate the brains of rats, with the Neurons beginning to self organize themselves – in other words, developing a personality.

He says if he fails, it will be proof that consciousness is more than merely a “rising up” of the brain – that there is something more. Will he or won’t he succeed? Stay tuned…