[PaulHoule]

FPGA.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebbian_theory

The way I would put it is that all those different neurons with different kind of receptors on that are so "colored" that there are a set from one place to another so there is an overall gross wiring diagram in that a green bundle of wires go from the limbic system to the frontal lobe but the detailed wiring plan is not encoded in the DNA the way a CPU or an old school television set has a plan -- there is not enough data in the DNA to do that. Instead the brain self-organizes the detailed wiring by learning.

[gsf_emergency_6]

It's a tad strange to simulate nonlinear analog effects with digital circuits, but it works!

[PaulHoule]

Not really.

Circa 1970s there were bands touring (e.g. Yes) with music synthesizers that were made by wiring up voltage controlled oscillators, ring oscillators, filters and similar analog components.

That sort of musician was really an electronics technician who had to keep a fiddly piece of hardware working on the road. And that kind of synthesizer was often monophonic or not very polyphonic.

Yamaha's DX-7 was a digital simulation of that kind of synthesizer which was absolutely reliable and a musical instrument really has to be because you're going to put it in a case that is going to get banged around in shipping and expect it to work just fine wherever you go.

[gsf_emergency_6]

Sorry, I meant conceptually amusing (to me).. of course error correction is basically why.. it just tickles me that way that organisms didn't evolve digital circuits (or did we, maybe it's just veeerry subtle :)