Our models of individual neurons behave a lot like what neurons behave like. Similarly, fairly crude models of the laminar pattern seem to mimic it very well. It is possible that there are other subtle effects that we aren’t noticing but that seems difficult.
On the other hand, evolution is very good at finding clever tricks, and we know that there has been a fair bit of evolution concerning our brains. So, it isn’t at all implausible that evolution at some point found a clever way to use quantum effects.Moreover, given that we know that there are genes active in the brain that are slightly different among the great apes from the versions in other mammals and still others that are different in humans from the other great apes, one could hypothesize in a not completely unlikely that this is part of the difference between humans and other species.
However, there are two separate issue from QM effects that could make emulation more difficult: first, there’s growing evidence that not just neurons but also glial cells matter to cognition. Second, there’s some reason to think that neurons can interact with nearby neurons by their electromagnetic fields. Either one of these issues could drastically increase the amount of computation needed to run an emulation.
Our models of individual neurons behave a lot like what neurons behave like. Similarly, fairly crude models of the laminar pattern seem to mimic it very well. It is possible that there are other subtle effects that we aren’t noticing but that seems difficult.
On the other hand, evolution is very good at finding clever tricks, and we know that there has been a fair bit of evolution concerning our brains. So, it isn’t at all implausible that evolution at some point found a clever way to use quantum effects.Moreover, given that we know that there are genes active in the brain that are slightly different among the great apes from the versions in other mammals and still others that are different in humans from the other great apes, one could hypothesize in a not completely unlikely that this is part of the difference between humans and other species.
However, there are two separate issue from QM effects that could make emulation more difficult: first, there’s growing evidence that not just neurons but also glial cells matter to cognition. Second, there’s some reason to think that neurons can interact with nearby neurons by their electromagnetic fields. Either one of these issues could drastically increase the amount of computation needed to run an emulation.