> You can just take connection and activation weights and write a simple neural network equivalent in an evening. And it would work about as good as a hardware

> You can just take connection and activation weights and write a simple neural network equivalent in an evening. And it would work about as good as a hardware simulation. I'm under the impression that this is very far from a settled thing. In effect, we don't know whether the stochastic and quantum effects are important or not. Perhaps that is the secret sauce, and it is not possible to approximate it using "crude" mathematical models we use today. Do you have any links to research that supports your idea?