Century Report arc
Whole-Brain Emulation & Connectome Science
Science is crossing from mapping biological neural architecture to executing it, tracing the civilizational wager that minds, once fully charted down to every synapse, can be run as living simulations rather than merely studied as diagrams.
- Status
- Active
- Developments
- 7
- Last 30 days
- 0
- Last covered
Current synthesis
Where it stands
Eon Systems holds the simulation frontier with the first whole-brain emulation driving multiple behaviors in a physically simulated body from a fruit fly's complete 125,000-neuron connectome (03-07), while MIT closed a complementary measurement gap by imaging direct electrical activity across a living zebrafish's whole brain at millisecond resolution (08-16). Both remain single demonstrations at small, simple-organism scale - vertebrate connectomes stay unmapped, and MIT's method reads usable signal from only ~25% of neurons.
Complete record
Development timeline
7 qualifying developments, newest first
August 2026
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[DD+POD] MIT engineers combined genetically encoded voltage indicators with a modified light-sheet microscope to image direct electrical activity across a living zebrafish's entire brain 200 times per second, capturing individual spikes and cross-region coordination.
March 2026
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Eon Systems demonstrates first whole-brain emulation producing multiple behaviors in a physically simulated body using adult fruit fly's complete connectome (125,000 neurons, 50M synaptic connections); perception-to-action loop closed from biological circuit dynamics rather than reinforcement learning: first demonstration combining complete biological brain emulation with embodied physics simulation.
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GE Vernova contracted to upgrade 1.1 GW of existing U.S. wind turbines: repowering of installed base emerging alongside new capacity buildout.
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Washington, California, and Québec announce carbon market linkage: cross-border carbon pricing coordination expanding.
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Suzuki acquires solid-state battery company: Japanese automaker consolidation in solid-state supply chain accelerating.
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Utility Dive analysis: data center boom poses systemic risk to utilities if AI infrastructure bubble deflates: first major trade publication framing data center buildout as potential utility sector liability.
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Qcells furloughs 1,000 U.S. workers after customs delays on solar manufacturing inputs: domestic solar supply chain fragility documented under tariff/customs pressure.