>>20
I believe that many elements of the brain will have to be accomodated into a computer, most notably the continuousness of time in a brain. Synapses are not pulses that can only mean a 1 or a 0, the vary in intensity and can last for a few seconds or for just a split second and can remain at low level intensities for a long period of time. The transistor-pulse based computer system will have to be scrapped or re-tooled to model synapses properly. Unless you can prove that this is unecessary unfortunately we can assume that synapses are the only way since it is the only apparent way possible.
Of course the brain is an information processing device, the thing is it is an immensely complex information processing device and it harbours a soul/spirit/sentient being or however you define your existence. The mathematics of brain is barely scratched by any of our technology, we can only hazard guesses at what hypothetical future scientists will discover. The maths will undoubtedly involve chaos theory in place of certain 1s and 0s, it will involve stages from the simplest decicision procedures between brain cells to how complex ideas and memories interact to allow a brain to think and analyse, whether these stages are continuous or can be categroised etc.. we don't know.