Building a biological brain

Quarks build up atoms, atoms build up molecules, and molecules grouped together may, once in a while, build up chemically excitable biomechanical units. We call these units cells; the fundamental building blocks of all biological life forms. Now, cells themselves come in exuberant variety, but one specific type of them is of interest to us here. It is a specific class of cells, known as nerve cells, or neurons. Why? Well, it turns out that if you take about 1011 neurons and set them up in a specific, complementary configuration, you get an organ that is capable of discovering fire, agriculture, and space travel. To realize how these bundles of neurons learn, however, we must first comprehend how one single neuron works. As you will see, it is the repetitive architecture in our brain, composed of these very same neurons, that gives rise to the grander phenomenon that we (pompously) call intelligence.