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Comment by bognition | Hacker News Reader

The morphology (cellular shape) of a neuron absolutely is involved in the processing of information. Additionally neurons aren’t just simple on/off units like we pretend they are. They are complicated little computers. They change their shape, gene expression, and electrical sensitivity in response to environmental factors, chemical signals from other neurons, and internal clocks.

They are insanely complicated. While the analogy of light switch compared to an M3 isn’t exactly accurate it does a good job of signaling that neurons and transistors are very much different thjngs.

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Absolutely. And every time someone talks about what biological systems do, the word 'involved' comes into play.

The morphology of neurons is involved in information processing, I don't doubt that at all. It's also involved in staying alive, and staying healthy, and 'being part of the organism', and a great many other things.

It is not at all clear which specific aspects of the morphology are 'for' processing information we care about in the context of intelligence (because again, even info processing can be 'for' things like making sure you breathe reliably).

I think the interesting (and scientifically unanswered) question here is: what is the minimum amount of a neuron needed for information processing alone?

If we look at the other side, the replication (giant fab facilities) and energy production/management (power lines, PSUs, etc) are separate from the information processing in a computer chip. But, if we consider all of the pieces involved in power generation and replication as part of the chip (just like a brain has), then the complexity of the brain seems loosely equal.

It is generally accepted that the locations and molecular structure of synapses are a critical determinant of CNS function. And a typical neuron will have and make hundreds to several thousands synapses.

So the more appropriate unit to compare to CPUs and GPUs is synapse number, not neuron number.

Here is an open version of my Annual Review of Neuroscience article with Karl Herrup on the control of neuron number. Old paper but it is one of the first publications to give an accurate estimate of neuron numbers in the human brain right:

https://www.nervenet.org/papers/NUMBER_REV_1988.html

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