There was no belittling in melling's comment. Even with the little knowledge we have today about how the brain functions, it is perfectly reasonable to hold the

There was no belittling in melling's comment. Even with the little knowledge we have today about how the brain functions, it is perfectly reasonable to hold the materialist position that everything happening in the brain is built on the laws of physics as we understand them today, and can therefore be simulated in principle. Whether a perfect brain simulation, or a "truly thinking" AI[0] is ever built is therefore not so much a question of whether it is possible in principle, and much more a question of whether the (immense) resources required will ever be put in use to achieve this task. It is therefore a question of economics and political science rather than a question of neuroscience. [0] Whatever that may mean.