Let me just say this: the neuron is a black box. So confidant I am of this, I would be happy to volunteer for the experiment where each neuron in my brain was one by one replaced with an artificial replica.
I am serious. Call MIT, get Marvin Minsky on board, and I'm game. We can do it in Austin where I live, in Palo Alto, or at MIT. I don't care. It would just be nice to shut these anti-AI nutcases up once and for all. :-)
The computer /is/ like the brain because the brain /is/ a computer. It's a complicated computer that has evolved over millions of years, yes, but it's also a computer. It has inputs and outputs. It regulates itself. It keeps itself alive.
Plenty of AI robots are able to do portions of these things. They can be kept alive with solar. They behave oddly, unexpectedly like humans.
AI is real and it is here already. Computers are answering questions we have been asking for a long time.
It won't be long until computers are asking /us/ questions and that's the true test of intelligence. Anyone can answer questions. Only a few can ask them.