In Silico

Noah Hutton VS 2020 83 min.

A bold project of a visionary neurologist charmed everyone. He would replicate a human brain, in all its complexity, on supercomputers. No other project managed to convince the European Union to get that many subsidies. But as years and funds ticked away, the gap between excessive ambition and objective results kept getting bigger.

Fifteen years ago, director Noah Hutton got fascinated by a promising scientific project led by Henry Markam. The expression ‘in silico’ means something is carried out via a computer or a computer simulation. Markam claimed he could replicate the human brain in all its complexity on a supercomputer, in just one decade. This would mean a revolution in terms of treating Alzheimer and other neurological diseases. During ten years, Hutton documents the audacious project, where a promising plan increasingly seems to fade into mere hubristic ambition.