These are not fully settled questions, though the answer is probably no.
Most researchers believe that brains are Turing machine equivalent, therefore can be simulated by any other equivalents. Even Gödel believed this, though he believed the mind had more capabilities than the brain.[1] As a materialist, you would share the commonly-accepted view and reject his latter claim.
There is a small minority of philosophers and physicists who believe that there are meaningful quantum reactions happening in the brain, distinguishing them from classical computers.[2] Some recent computer simulations have shown this to be plausible, but the general impression is that it seems unlikely, and we don't have specific evidence of effects of this sort.
Quantum effects of certain sorts are computationally infeasible to perform with classical computers. And it's theoretically plausible that such effects can not be conducted at scale with in-development quantum computer technology, and is only practical with organic chemistry, but again, this is quite a minority view.
It's also possible that classical brain features, such as its massive concurrence or various clever algorithms, prove difficult to replicate or simulate. If these are easy problems to solve, then strong AI may arrive in decades; if very difficult, centuries. In the latter case, it seems plausible that incorporating wetware would be a useful shortcut. But there's good reason to believe that the practical disadvantages of wetware (e.g. keeping it alive, coordinating with its slow "clock speed") overwhelm the computational conveniences.
Thank you for the detailed response. I'm looking forward to digging into the links you posted.
> There is a small minority of philosophers and physicists who believe that there are meaningful quantum reactions happening
I wonder why this is a minority view. Bear in mind that I am an armchair scientist, but I recall reading that meaningful quantum effects are responsible for the efficiency of photosynthesis. It seems quite plausible (due to the electro-chemical nature of brain functioning) that there might be similar effects present in the brain.
Most researchers believe that brains are Turing machine equivalent, therefore can be simulated by any other equivalents. Even Gödel believed this, though he believed the mind had more capabilities than the brain.[1] As a materialist, you would share the commonly-accepted view and reject his latter claim.
There is a small minority of philosophers and physicists who believe that there are meaningful quantum reactions happening in the brain, distinguishing them from classical computers.[2] Some recent computer simulations have shown this to be plausible, but the general impression is that it seems unlikely, and we don't have specific evidence of effects of this sort.
Quantum effects of certain sorts are computationally infeasible to perform with classical computers. And it's theoretically plausible that such effects can not be conducted at scale with in-development quantum computer technology, and is only practical with organic chemistry, but again, this is quite a minority view.
It's also possible that classical brain features, such as its massive concurrence or various clever algorithms, prove difficult to replicate or simulate. If these are easy problems to solve, then strong AI may arrive in decades; if very difficult, centuries. In the latter case, it seems plausible that incorporating wetware would be a useful shortcut. But there's good reason to believe that the practical disadvantages of wetware (e.g. keeping it alive, coordinating with its slow "clock speed") overwhelm the computational conveniences.
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[1] http://www.hss.cmu.edu/philosophy/sieg/onmindTuringsMachines...
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mind