Simulating a brain using the same number of neurons is like simulating a body using the same number of atoms. Also relevant, Chomsky vs Norvig, on AI http://

Simulating a brain using the same number of neurons is like simulating a body using the same number of atoms. Also relevant, Chomsky vs Norvig, on AI http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/06/norvig-vs-chomsky-and-the-fight-for-the-future-of-ai http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/06/norvig-vs-chomsky-and-the-f... Which boils down to "make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler". Chomsky wants to understand what's happening. Norvig says it's too complicated. I think we can usually carve off an aspect or layer of phenomena that - in isolation - is simple enough to understand. But I don't see any guarantee that this will necessarily be the case; models are possible that aren't decomposable into simpler parts (because they must interact with everything else, informationally). However (1) understanding is what we seek in Science; and (2) it's always been possible before - for whatever reason, the universe does seem to be decomposable hierarchically... at least, the bits that we've understood, so far...