@jinchoung: Even if K were talking about simulating a brain in silico without getting into the meatware, the fact is that he insinuated that the amount of code necessary would be approximately the size of the information in the genome which is deadly wrong for two reasons. First is that code is the best code ever…

@Kirkaiya: It is difficult to understand the exact point K is making which, in a way, is the most damning criticism. He could be trying to make two points.

@strider_mt2k: As those before me have mentioned, you were/are a great commenter. In general, I think I understand where you are coming from. If you are commenting elsewhere, please let me know. I'm always interested to hear what you have to say.

@El Guano: Your cake analogy is quite good.

@theGigaflop: A few posts above there is a dialog wherein I explained that modeling to the atomic level is necessary.

@jinchoung: It is important to clearly define what we are talking about. I think K is saying that it is possible to build a functioning model of a brain using the data from DNA without modeling the molecules to an atomic level.

@jinchoung: Ah yes, I think we are getting somewhere. See the brain doesn't work like a computer with 0 and 1 and each stimulus resulting in the same response. When a neuron gets a Ca2+ pulse, what happens depends on interactions between many different proteins that all interact with Ca2+ and each other. To predict…

@mhr512: I would say it is neither beneficial or detrimental. There are numerous studies on developing primate brains that support this opinion.

@jinchoung: You are free to not take my opinion as fact. The issue here is that you can't simulate the behavior of a molecule without modeling the atoms and bond lengths.

@lanboyo: The developing minds of primates are very similar to those of humans, those studies have been performed and nothing was amiss. Now compare that to alcohol which clearly causes neuronal death. The evidence is indisputable as I said.

@casperiv: I have actually read the primary literature in this area and your claims about lung damage are simply not true. Correlation between psychiatic problems and drug use does not mean causality. Please either look at the literature or accept the opinion of someone who has. The data you are citing is not…

@jinchoung: I see what you are getting at, I am telling you that to properly model the behavior of the molecules in the brain, you need to know every atom. You can't "dumb it down". The important elements of function occur on the atomic level.

PZ is correct in taking Kurzweil to task on this issue. Some people seem unconvinced by PZ, which is too bad because he is spot on.

@19XX: Yes, as in the people who have done studies on the matter have shown through a great number of peer reviewed journal articles that alcohol kills brain cells whereas marijuana does not. The agreement of experts. That is what I mean by indisputable.

@jinchoung: It turns out to model the brain, you need to know every detail about every atom and bond distance. Change one hydrogen atom on one protein and the whole assembly behaves differently. The amount of information that represents is staggering. PZ is totally correct.

@mhr512: Fact is what? I have worked as a medicinal chemist for years and have seen no evidence that marijuana harms brain neurons, growing or not. Also, the kid wasn't exposed as tests have shown. Just what is the source of the outrage here?

Wait, what is the problem here? I've seen tons of photos of babies with beer bottles and no one is getting arrested for those. Alcohol is indisputably much more damaging than marijuana. I fail to see why this photo that is obviously a joke would be any bigger a deal than a baby with a beer bottle.

@John Herrman: Do you know if Apple obtained the rights indefinitely? I hear they like limited term exclusivity contracts.

Are we going to mention Chris Anderson and not mention that he wrote Free: The Future of Radical Price?

@triplecheeseburger: What drives me crazy is that the problem must be widespread if I have seen about 4 or 5 phones with this problem (or I'm statistically improbably unlucky). However I emailed Giz with these photos and they haven't written a post about it. I can't be the only one and this seems like a big issue. …