We can, must, and will simulate nematode brains

Prospects for Simulating Brains (Human and Nematode)

• Some see full brain simulation (up to human-level) as inevitable long‑term, starting from connectome mapping and scaling up.
• Others argue “someday” is unjustified optimism: we can’t fully simulate even atoms or single cells yet, so a human brain may be practically or even fundamentally out of reach.
• A middle view: mapping small regions (or simple organisms) is plausible and scientifically valuable, but extrapolating to whole-human simulation is wildly premature.

What Counts as a “Simulation”?

• Thread repeatedly returns to: what does “simulate a brain” actually mean?
• One camp is behaviorist: a simulation is good if it reproduces observable behavior for some purpose (e.g., nematode squirming, traffic flow, animal migration).
• Another insists that reproducing a narrow slice of behavior (e.g., “quacks like a duck”) isn’t enough; accuracy depends on the objectives—predictive biology vs. artificial pets vs. philosophical copies of minds.

Technical and Scientific Obstacles

• Strong emphasis on unknowns: incomplete understanding of neurons, synapses, neurotransmitters, graded vs. spiking potentials, body–brain interactions, hormones, gut–brain axis, and lack of non‑invasive high‑resolution measurement.
• Skeptics highlight that current neuron models are gross simplifications; we can’t even model a single cell in full biochemical detail.
• Dispute over whether we must simulate at atomic/quantum level or can rely on higher‑level abstractions, with analogies to CFD and weather forecasting (highly useful yet limited and data‑hungry).

Consciousness, Computation, and Substrate

• Debate over whether consciousness can arise purely from computation or whether the physical substrate and specific dynamics (e.g., electrons vs. abstract algorithms) matter.
• References to philosophical zombies and Chinese Room: a system could behave like a conscious agent yet be experientially empty.
• Some argue brains are just physical systems obeying physics and thus in principle simulable; others note physical limits to computation and our ignorance of consciousness as reasons for caution.

Ethics, Immortality, and Inequality

• Speculation on brain upload as “next phase of evolution” triggers mixed reactions: excitement about defeating death vs. fear of extreme inequality (“cheat codes” for the rich) and dystopian outcomes (digital suffering, “Neura‑hell”).
• Some push a broader view that we already extend cognition with writing, tools, and computers—“we are already cyborgs.”

Nematodes as a Testbed and Skepticism of Grand Projects

• Nematodes are seen as an appealingly simple but still very hard target where full‑organism simulation might be scientifically actionable.
• There is criticism of past large‑scale brain projects that overpromised (e.g., EU initiatives), and concern that confident “we can, must, will” rhetoric risks burning resources on speculative goals.