BioCoder #11

Chapter 3. Building Artificial Connectomes

Timothy Busbice

I have emulated the C elegans connectome (i.e., how a nervous system is wired) in robotics and shown that the connectome with a simple neuron model displays behaviors similar to the animal itself. With further emulations of other animal connectomes (e.g., Zebra fish), I have discovered certain rules and paradigms that govern connectomic engineering and that animal behavior is highly integrated into the connectomic structure. This means that least at this time, it’s virtually impossible to remove unwanted behaviors.

Using animal connectome emulation, unwanted behaviors such as defensive mechanisms, will make it difficult to create robots and applications that are conducive to our desires and needs. For example, one would not want to create a robotic puppy for their child that bites. We would probably more want the robotic puppy to simply shut down and stop playing rather than chew on our children. This has led me to create artificial connectomes with the hope that we can teach behavior into the system and not have to try and remove behavior from existing and established animal connectomes. This product is what I label connectomic artificial intelligence.

Connectomic Rules

There are certain rules to connectomic engineering that allow the emulation of sensory to cortical to motor output behaviors. These are the rules that I have observed, and many have been noted by other connectomic scientists. Some observations may be ...