Vatbrain Biocomputers

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by malloyd

I'd tend to lean heavily the other way - a biocomputer is very much a brain in a tank with maybe a little electronic hardware bolted to the sides.

The little bits of tissue model requires that a few neurons be able to do *something* better than transistors, and there appears to be nothing. Electronics apparently can already do anything we see in simple nervous systems. It is still possible to claim that about whole brains though, at least for higher animal or human brains.

But we don't know if 'brains' as we think of that term are the only arrangements of neurons that can be useful, and we don't know what number of neurons constitutes more than 'a few'.

And for that matter, we still know little enough about neurons that we can not say with confidence what all they do and don't do. In biological systems, it seems like every time they think they have something pinned down, a new function or behavior suddenly emerges.

[Flyndaran]

I think the purpose for them existing in any setting is purely for either ick-factor or biochauvinism, not realism. How and why they're better than electronics doesn't mater as much, IMO.