Director's Notes
I started making Bluebrain in 2009 after I saw Henry Markram give his TED talk promising to build a sentient simulation of the human brain on IBM supercomputers within 10 years. I proposed to Markram and his team to make a 10-year documentary tracking their endeavor, and they gave me access starting that year. Since then, I've visited them steadily once or twice a year, interviewing the same scientists over and over again, as they've had children, moved labs, faced harsh criticism of their work, and yes, gradually moved the goalposts of their original goal to more realistic and humble visions of what will be achieved in this ten year window.
This first clip is from the second year of documenting the Blue Brain Project, when director Noah Hutton was only following Markram and his team. After I found myself at a few screenings as a de facto stand-in for Markram, defending his controversial project to simulate the brain in such a short time period, I realized I had to expand the film to include the critics who were openly offering alternate visions for where the money should be spent.
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