On Tue, 24 Dec 2002, James A. Donald wrote: > On the other hand, our inability to emulate a nematode, or the > a portion of the retina, is grounds for concern. This does not > indicate that the mystery is QM, but does suggest that there is > some mystery -- some special quality either of individual > neurons or very small networks of neurons that we have not yet > grasped. > > It is unsurprising that with current computing power we should > be unable to emulate an ant, but inability to emulate a > nematode is troubling.
The nervous system is exceptionally complex and many people have spent their lives attempting to figure it out. Invertabrates always send the same signals for the same stimulous. Mapping signals to stimulous is difficult, even in a nematode! The basic operation of a single cell still eludes science. The number of molecules and all their operations are not yet known. Until we know that, we can't know how multiple cells in a nervous system fully communicate. We do know a lot - that calcium is a major control signal for the sodium and clorine pours - but we don't know the shape of the channels that pass these elements. Our inability to emulate a single cell is not "troubling". It's proof we have a lot to learn. We need to do a lot more research in a lot more fields. Too bad we won't. Killing people is so much more fun than learning anything useful. It's going to be a long time before we can "emulate a nematode". Other than acting like one as W does so well :-) Patience, persistence, truth, Dr. mike
