> 2. Ion channels may or may not be affected by quantum effects.
In a sense, everything is affected by quantum effects. However, with neurons, they are generally large enough that quantum effects do not dominate. Voltage gated channels are dozens to hundreds of amino-acids long. Generally, there are hundreds to millions of ion channels in a cell membrane and the quantum tunneling of a few sodium ions in or out of the cell will generally not affect gestalt behavior of the cell, let alone a nervous system's long term state. Suffice to say, ion channels are not dominated by quantum behavior.
Largely, we have the building blocks to replicate neurons (as we currently understand them) in silico. However, as is typical with modeling, you get out what you put in. Meaning that how you set your models up will mostly determine what they do. Setting your net size, the parameters of you PDEs, boundary values, etc. are the most important things.
Now, that gets you a result, and it's likely to take a fair bit of time to run through. To get it up to real time the limiting factor really ends up being heat. Silicon takes a LOT of energy as compared to our heads, ~10^4 more per 'neuron'. If we want to get to real time, we're gonna need to deal with the entropy.
In a sense, everything is affected by quantum effects. However, with neurons, they are generally large enough that quantum effects do not dominate. Voltage gated channels are dozens to hundreds of amino-acids long. Generally, there are hundreds to millions of ion channels in a cell membrane and the quantum tunneling of a few sodium ions in or out of the cell will generally not affect gestalt behavior of the cell, let alone a nervous system's long term state. Suffice to say, ion channels are not dominated by quantum behavior.
Largely, we have the building blocks to replicate neurons (as we currently understand them) in silico. However, as is typical with modeling, you get out what you put in. Meaning that how you set your models up will mostly determine what they do. Setting your net size, the parameters of you PDEs, boundary values, etc. are the most important things.
Now, that gets you a result, and it's likely to take a fair bit of time to run through. To get it up to real time the limiting factor really ends up being heat. Silicon takes a LOT of energy as compared to our heads, ~10^4 more per 'neuron'. If we want to get to real time, we're gonna need to deal with the entropy.