My biggest accomplishments in Minecraft so far have been building my dream home (complete with fireplace, library, greenhouse, and swimming pool) and a five-way track switcher that I definitely did not copy off a Youtube video. Redditor AllUpInHyuh, on the other hand, created what he or she is calling "a working neuron."
An Imgur gallery is accompanied by snippets of text like the following:
The box on the left represents the extracellular concentration of sodium (initially high). Stacks will be drawn out and "diffuse" into the intracellular chest.
And:
Gold pressure plate can be thought of as a binding site for neurotransmitters. As the number of sprites released from dropper grows, the signal from plate increases. The quantity of items in chest determines the threshold for stimulation.
I have no idea what any of that means, but given that the discussion in the comments turned almost immediately to this project's hypothetical applications toward creating artificial intelligence, I think we can conclude that it's pretty serious. After all, according to this sciencey-looking page, a human brain contains roughly 100 billion neurons. That seems doable, right?
Just made a working neuron in a video game. thought this transcended r/minecraft
[Reddit]