The brain is a small world network[0], but article’s thesis is that a neuron (a single vertex in that small world) can actually compute quite a bit on its own—-

The brain is a small world network[0], but article’s thesis is that a neuron (a single vertex in that small world) can actually compute quite a bit on its own—-it’s not an integrate-and-fire unit or a ReLU. I guess you could expand things out and treat each synapse, rather than each neuron, as as a unit, in which case there’s an extra level in your “world”. This is a little different from how people normally think of “connectivity” because the way information is routed within a cell is much more flexible than between them. Still, it’s not totally bonkers. [0] Just so we’re on the same page, when people talk about the brain as a small world network, the general idea is that a neuron in (say) auditory cortex mostly communicates with other auditory neurons, locally and in higher/lower auditory areas. It doesn’t talk to neurons representing (say) touch in the small of your back. Thus, there are far fewer than 86B! connections in the brain, but there are still an awful lot!