Whole Brain Emulation: A Roadmap

Whole Brain Emulation: A Roadmap is a comprehensive technical report that examines the scientific and engineering requirements for scanning, mapping, and simulating a human brain at sufficient resolution to preserve personal identity and consciousness. The work surveys existing neuroscience, imaging technology, and computational methods, identifying key bottlenecks and research priorities across multiple disciplines including neurobiology, microscopy, computer science, and philosophy of mind.

Sandberg structures the analysis around a staged roadmap, breaking the challenge into component problems: brain scanning and imaging, neural circuit mapping, computational modeling of neural function, and substrate-independent implementation. The report synthesizes literature across neuroscience, cryonics, and artificial intelligence, providing quantitative estimates of technical requirements and timelines.

The work has become influential in transhumanist and AI safety circles as a serious technical treatment of mind uploading, grounding speculative scenarios in engineering constraints. It is frequently cited in discussions of personal identity, digital consciousness, and long-term technological futures.