Every synapse is itself a protuberance caused and maintained by microtubules. If the previous estimates of computational power are based on the mere integration

Every synapse is itself a protuberance caused and maintained by microtubules. If the previous estimates of computational power are based on the mere integration of synaptic activity (I'm looking at you, Kurzweil), and as of late we are coming to view the individual synapses as full computational elements in their own rights, then this is essentially adding at least another order of magnitude or two to the equation beyond our modern understanding. This is because every single synapse would itself additionally be placed and supported by a state-machine-based computational system local to it, tethered to every other state-machine-based computational system in the same neuron, including synapses at both the input and output side, and a much larger computational complex of systems within the body of the cell. Computational systems built upon computational systems upon computational systems, all complexed together and communicating at multiple layers of the hierarchy with bi-directional feedback.