Quotation: ”I don’t understand the things that I cannot create” R.P.Feynman [6]
The many enormous differences between technical and biological computing make simulation of neural operation a real challenge. A fundamental issue is that the biological time of the events is not directly proportional to the computer processing time. Given that the processing time comprises computing time plus transfer time, time-stamping cannot provide a solution for time handling. The time stamp records when an event happens in the computing process instead of its biological time. Given that several neurons share the computing resources and the computer’s execution is sequential, the events happening at a biologically identical time will generate time stamps at technically different times. Furthermore, from the same reason, the the generated event will be considered again at different times with a (technically random) delay compared to the time of generating those events and to each other. Furthermore, the propagation time through the axons cannot be included. These effects are late consequences of omitting the transfer time in computing science.
The goal is to ”create” neurons and their systems; in spirit of Feynman. In some sense, it is a ”duck test”. We simulate a duck and test it it looks like, swims and quacks We demonstrate that our abstract model passes the duck test ”If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck”. See also Feynman’s opinion on understanding.