In Switzerland, a neuroscientist is hoping to use an IBM supercomputer much more powerful than Deep Blue to do just that.
That's interesting enough. The real thing is that Henry Markram says we (mainly, his professional colleagues being referenced) need to ditch many of their scientific preconceptions about how individual neurons, neuron groups and areas of the brain work.
The story describes how he is modeling the simulation on actual "slices" of mouse neocortex.
What's Markram's take on consciousness? Well, he's definitely an anti-mysterian, but believes it is an emergent property, so he's not a Dennett-style greedy reductionist. Sounds like he's right in the groove with his thoughts on that matter, which leads me to give him credence on looking at junking some current ideas about neuron operation.
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