Comment by barak on Whole Brain Emulation: No Progress on C. elegans After 10 Years · 2021-10-03T16:38:51.608Z · LW · GW

One complication glossed over in the discussion (both above and below) is that a single synapse, even at a single point in time, may not be well characterized as a simple "weight". Even without what we might call learning per se, the synaptic efficacy seems, upon closer examination, to be a complicated function of the recent history, as well as the modulatory chemical environment. Characterizing and measuring this is very difficult. It may be more complicated in a C. elegans than in a mammal, since it's such a small but highly optimized hunk of circuitry.