Find your place in brain emulation research

A simple hub for whole brain emulation and mind uploading: what to read, who’s working on it, and how to get involved.

Whole brain emulation means scanning a brain in enough detail to run a working copy of it on a computer. It is a small field, with fewer than a few thousand people working on anything close to it, so a few good starting points go a long way.

Where things stand (2026): the fruit fly’s full wiring diagram is done, the larval zebrafish is close, and one cubic millimetre each of mouse and human cortex has been mapped. Nobody has yet emulated even a worm in a way everyone agrees works.

Learn

Understand what brain emulation is and why it might matter

Two short reads and one long one cover most of the field.

Best first read
80,000 Hours: Whole brain emulation

A short, balanced introduction: the upside, the risks, and why almost nobody works on it full time.

Read the profile

Communities

Meet the people who work on this

There is one organisation dedicated to whole brain emulation end to end, and it welcomes newcomers.

Main community
Carboncopies Foundation

Research and education nonprofit. Runs open journal clubs, workshops, and a newsletter.

Visit Carboncopies

Events

Workshops and talks, online and in person

Main workshop
Foresight Institute: Whole Brain Emulation workshop

Annual, invite-based, with subsidised places. Past reports are public and show who is in the room.

Visit Foresight

Datasets

Public brain datasets you can explore today

Predicting activity from wiring is an open problem you can try on a laptop.

Newsletters

Newsletters and reports

Programs

Fellowships that accept brain emulation projects

No program is dedicated to WBE yet. These broader ones have taken related work, especially on strategy and safety.

Help out

This site is new and will have gaps

If something is missing, wrong or out of date, tell us. If you want to help maintain it, get in touch.

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