Our Approach

Theoretical Feasibility

The basic argument for the theoretical feasibility of the NADA Project begins with the recognition that modern neuroscience is revealing the embodied basis of the human mind. Because the mind is embodied in the living brain, by simple substitution the mind could be embodied in any physical form that adequately replicates the brain’s mechanisms.   

Furthermore, advances in artificial neural network (ANN) models have now produced powerful computational models of abstract concepts for recognizing patterns in many domains. Significantly, these advances have been made with ANNs, rather than traditional symbolic artificial intelligence (AI) approaches.  The suggestion may be that insights into biological intelligence will continue to generate insights into AI, and vice versa, in what promises to be a rapid feedback loop of advancing both human and computer intelligence.

Invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies, requiring insertion of technology into the head tissues, are being explored by companies such as Neuralink.  The first interfaces being evaluated by BEL Co in support of the NADA Project are noninvasive, using dense array electroencephalography (EEG) and transcranial electrical stimulation (TES).  The Stage I NADA Project will support theoretical discussions of the feasibility of both invasive and noninvasive methods of BCI.  More importantly, direct evidence of the feasibility of an effective brain-computer interface will be provided by the rate of progress in both invasive and noninvasive methods, coupled with individual neuromorphic machine learning, in the coming years.

The goal of transferring the individual mind to machine form requires not only effective communication between mind and machine, but also the adequate capture of the essential capacity of the mind. For this goal, the NADA “approximation” follows a logic similar to the familiar Turing test. The essential self that we recognize is not a perfect personal history, but rather that set of memories and cognitive capacities that we continue to consolidate effectively in each night’s sleep. This active process of organizing daily experience within the dynamic and ongoing architecture of the self might be emulated by a neural interface that captures the sleep process over an extended interval of time. Whether this requires a year, a decade, a lifetime, or it proves altogether infeasible, remains to be determined as a key NADA goal.

The question of when the digital approximation is adequate for transfer of the mind to the computer may seem to be important. Yet if an effective brain-computer interface is established with a high resolution neuromorphic emulation, then the person’s mind will almost certainly establish a kind of hybrid intelligence, in which ongoing cognition is extended by the increasingly powerful capacities of AI. As a result, the most likely scenario is a gradual transition to the computational AI of the Entropy Escape Vehicle, as the degradation of the brain with disease or senility makes the original biological vessel increasingly irrelevant.

Nada’s Unique Approach

NADA scientists have recognized that an AI can be constructed to precisely emulate an individual’s brain function. To build (grow) this AI, our unique approach is to simultaneously emulate the person’s behavior and the neural activity of their brain as assessed with a Whole Brain Computer Interface (Tucker & Luu, 2024) (US Patent Application 18/653,703).

• High definition electroencephalography (280 channel EEG) can now resolve the neural activity of ~ 9600 regions of the cerebral cortex noninvasively using Bayesian methods of electrical source localization (Fernandez-Corazza et al., 2021).

• A high definition anatomical model of the person’s brain is constructed through combining structural MRI with cortical surface extraction and tessellation, and nerve fiber tractography (Li, Papademetris, & Tucker, 2016).

• Extensive recording of the HD-EEG during language behavior (conversation, interview, texts, and email) provides a waking sample of neural activity.

• The consolidation of personal memory is recorded in many nights of sleep with hdEEG, providing an ongoing record of the neural activity of those aspects of experience that are retained and integrated within the self (Tucker, Luu, & Friston, 2025). These essential memories of the self are then predicted by the AI and retained in the PNE (Tucker & Luu, 2024). The theory is that these Bayesian priors consolidated over many nights sleep reflect the full self (the personality) that is carried forward in memory.

• A specialized AI, NECA (Neuromorphic Emulation Constructor AI), is designed to emulate (predict) both behavior and the cortical electrical fields associated with the individual’s high-definition anatomical brain model. The NECA is then able to achieve Bayesian super-resolution, in which the electrical field data are only compatible with a specific high-resolution emulation organized by the NECA model (US Patent Application 63/683,938).

From Breakthroughs to Buildout: NADA’s Milestones

Our journey blends deep neuroscience with cutting-edge AI, backed by SBIR grants, FDA-clearance pathways, and proprietary technology. These milestones mark our progress toward building the world’s first functional, whole-brain interface—and position NADA for accelerated growth as we approach Series A.