"hmmmmmmm............. frustrating politically correct answer from her regarding the question about building of a whole brain.<br>      Although she may consider it science fiction and not something that she wants or needs to do", it's undeniable that something like an artificial brain that had the complexity and compute power of a real brain would have absurdly high economic value. Therefore, if it can be done, it will be done. Perhaps not in America, but then in China," Russia or elsewhere. <br>      So to just poo-poo and laugh off the idea may serve her career well"," but i don't think history will look back so kindly on this sort of attitude. <br><br>Just my humble 2 cents.",(reply>), I think she did kind of answer the question about the ethical implications of growing a 'true' artificial brain by saying that the specific scientific data being generated by researchers doing the work must inform any ethical discussion (so people at least properly understand what they are discussing). She also said that she believes the work scientists are currently able to perform in her area of research does not raise serious ethical concerns. <br><br>Science, especially in complex areas like neurobiology, proceeds in small, distinct steps, where new insights and techniques continuously redefine what may be possible and steer the direction of further investigations. However, you cannot forecast in advance how this is going to proceed, and therefore what specific ethical questions you may be facing at any given time. The best approach, therefore, would be to take each step, see where that lands you, and then determine the ethical challenges you potentially face going ahead from there. You can't know this in advance any more that you can know your research results in advance. <br><br>You raise an interesting question about whether the rules under which researchers in countries such as China operate may become very different to those in the West. Although there is competition between researchers and labs around the world, there is also a lot of co-operation and cross-pollination because everyone understands that is the most effective way of making advances in the field. Science is becoming more and more global because difficult and complex problems require global resources, global talent and global communication to solve. This trend should alleviate the risk of rogue researchers and labs emerging that operate according to dubious ethical practices because those researchers are fully integrated into the global scientific and academic community. The people capable of making significant breakthroughs are part of that system.