Starting at 1 is always amusing when talking to computer people. Computer people seem happy to dismiss most of the brain because "neural network—all we need is data!" But, the brain isn't just a bowl of neurons freely connecting to each other. There's a quite rigid structure to brains that give rise to things like the perception of free will and language acquisition (i.e. why no other animals have language).
The brain is organized in layers, but the layers don't care about respecting order. layer 5 can be directly connected to layer 0, forwards and backwards, as well as anywhere else in-between. Brains rely a lot more on inhibiting signals than generating signals. Plus, depending on how you count, we are made up of three brains put together: left, right, cerebellum, and those are seldom considered in our current fascination with single-task "AI" systems. You can put a shark fin on your head then swim for a while, but you're still not a shark.
As for "neuroscience narrative argues that function and learning cannot be decoupled" — saying learning is a bit of a stretch. The brain only cares about correlating coincident events ("neurons that fire together wire together") and wiring together neurons that fire at the same time ends up causing what we see as emergent behaviors (semantic memories bound to episodic memory, operant conditioning, etc).
The brain is organized in layers, but the layers don't care about respecting order. layer 5 can be directly connected to layer 0, forwards and backwards, as well as anywhere else in-between. Brains rely a lot more on inhibiting signals than generating signals. Plus, depending on how you count, we are made up of three brains put together: left, right, cerebellum, and those are seldom considered in our current fascination with single-task "AI" systems. You can put a shark fin on your head then swim for a while, but you're still not a shark.
To go deeper down the rabbit hole, start off with http://www.amazon.com/Cerebellum-Brain-Implicit-Press-Scienc... (warning: dense) or skim http://neuroscience.uth.tmc.edu/s3/chapter05.html or use http://www.amazon.com/Mapping-Mind-Rita-Carter/dp/0520266285 as an easy getting started reference.
As for "neuroscience narrative argues that function and learning cannot be decoupled" — saying learning is a bit of a stretch. The brain only cares about correlating coincident events ("neurons that fire together wire together") and wiring together neurons that fire at the same time ends up causing what we see as emergent behaviors (semantic memories bound to episodic memory, operant conditioning, etc).