Comment by Kim_Bruning
14 days ago
> Biological brains exist, we study them, and no they are not like computers at all.
Technically correct? I think single bioneurons are potentially Turing complete all by themselves at the relevant emergence level. I've read papers where people describe how they are at least on the order of capability of solving MNIST.
So a biological brain is closer to a data-center. (Albeit perhaps with low complexity nodes)
But there's so much we don't know that I couldn't tell you in detail. It's weird how much people don't know.
* https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.01269 Can Single Neurons Solve MNIST? The Computational Power of Biological Dendritic Trees
* https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34380016/ Single cortical neurons as deep artificial neural networks (this one is new to me, I found it while searching!)
Obviously any kind of model is going to be a gross simplification of the actual biological systems at play in various behaviors that brains exhibit.
I'm just pointing out that not all models are created equal and this one is over used to create a lot of bullshit.
Especially in the tech industry where we're presently seeing billionaires trying to peddle a new techno-feudalism wrapped up in the mystical hokum language of machines that can, "reason."
I don't think the use of the computational interpretation can't possibly lead to interesting results or insights but I do hope that the neuroscientists in the room don't get too exhausted by the constant stream of papers and conference talks pushing out empirical studies.