>>dmd+(OP)
I'm referring to the various times biological neurons have been (and will likely continue to be) the inspiration for artificial neurons[0]. I acknowledge that the word "inspiration" is doing a lot of work here, but the research continues[1][2]. If you have a PhD in neuroscience, I understand your need to push back on the hand-wavy optimism of the technologists, but I think saying "almost no idea" is going a little far. Neuroscientists are not looking up from their microscopes and fMRI's, throwing up their hands, and giving up. Yes, there is a lot of work left to do, but it seems needlessly pessimistic to say we have made almost no progress either in understanding biological neurons or in moving forward with their distantly related artificial counterparts.
Just off the top of my head, in my lifetime, I have seen discoveries regarding new neuropeptides/neurotransmitters such as orexin, starting to understand glial cells, new treatments for brain diseases such as epilepsy, new insight into neural metabolism, and better mapping of human neuroanatomy. I might only be a layman observing, but I have a hard time believing anyone can think we've made almost no progress.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_artificial_neural_n...
[1] https://ai.stackexchange.com/a/3936
[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-84813-6