Sure, maybe Kurzweil doesn't understand the brain on any deep level and indeed maybe even those who understand the better than him don't understand it well enough at this point.
But Kurzweil's basic argument really isn't about that, it's about the exponential advance of tools and technologies and understanding on multiple level. Will the blue brain project succeed? Will some lesser known project succeed? Will the process take twenty instead of ten years? All unknown but not crucial to the implications of exponential change. When you have tool that are improve exponentially, what you can do tends to improve also. And then the whole process builds on itself. Do I know where this will go? No but I don't you do either.
Sure, maybe Kurzweil doesn't understand the brain on any deep level and indeed maybe even those who understand the better than him don't understand it well enough at this point.
But Kurzweil's basic argument really isn't about that, it's about the exponential advance of tools and technologies and understanding on multiple level. Will the blue brain project succeed? Will some lesser known project succeed? Will the process take twenty instead of ten years? All unknown but not crucial to the implications of exponential change. When you have tool that are improve exponentially, what you can do tends to improve also. And then the whole process builds on itself. Do I know where this will go? No but I don't you do either.