[Wonderfall]

I admit my phrasing was poor there, and I got too excited. I will clarify since I don't really disagree with you or what others said (claiming it's the best way is an overstatement).

Well, one could say that neural networks pioneers modeled their ideas on simplified brain structures representations. Modern neural networks have little in common with an actual biological brain, however, the inspiration remains there (even for modern NNs like CNNs). I recall the intent was there too, originally: providing a framework to study biological cognition in the 50s. Then it evolved to become a new paradigm in computer science so that we have programs able to learn and adapt for problems that are formally too complicated for deterministic solutions.