Yesterday I’ve watched a Singularity 1-on-1 interview with Miguel Nicolelis and Ronald Cicurel about their theory of the brain and its implications: https://www.singularityweblog.com/miguel-nicolelis-and-ronald-cicurel/
It’s an interesting and thought provoking theory. It suggests that simulating human minds might be significantly more difficult than for example Ray Kurzweil and Henry Makram think it is. They make their point rather plausible.
Their conclusions, however, seem to stretch out a bit too far: That we won’t be able to simulate the brain at all, and that there will be no “technological Singularity” (in the sense of an intelligence explosion or otherwise). If they are right about their technical arguments, can can be concluded is that purely digital computers will be insufficient to capture all the salient details of the human mind (including consciousness). So, what about hybrid digital-analog computers which simulate all the different levels of computation in the human brain? What about adding additional components to the human brain? What about interlinking human brains with each other? All of these would still be viable paths to create some kind of superhuman mind.
What do you think?