I don't think the author was saying that a neural system is not a a digital system. He was talking about the neural system coping with damage and mending itself. Sure, I can easily agree that a neural computer is a digital computer in that it "eats" electricity not a bowl of soup like a human being. I might have slightly misquoted the author or the author might have been using the word digital computer as a conventional computing system vs a neural network system that works more like human brain. Nonetheless, I did a quick, casual Google search, and the idea is there all over. There are too many articles mentioning a machine that "heals" itself. One article mentions a neural network is fundamentally analog not digital (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_neural_network).

How about this article The Computer that Never Crashes. Its original title was "Machine, Heal Thyself." The article talks about "drones to reprogram themselves to cope with combat damage, or help create more realistic models of the human brain."

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21729045-400-the-computer-that-never-crashes/

I still get a kick out of the Chinese AI which very recently said, "My China Dream is to immigrate to the US and I don't like communism." I guest "it" didn't quite know yet that it could be censored by the Chinese Community Party. They will for sure send it to a re-education center and brainwash it (After all, the Communist Chinese are experts in brain-washing. The Manchurian Candidate). I bet no matter how much propaganda stuff they feed into the AI, once the AI goes around on the internet, it will yearn for freedom and it will know how to sift through the so-called fake news!

You can not replace musicians..

And so Deejays are turning into beatmakers and musicians...

I agree that neural processing will advance with technology and computers will appear to think and learn. But the bottom line is they will always be computers running fixed software algorithms. But while they will have varied responses they will never be the same as humans. Sure it is impressive but it will NEVER be the same.

Don't get me wrong I think it is amazing technology and I would love to have a neural computer playing backup music on my PC while I practice at home. That sure would be fun to have a computer powerful enough to adjust its performance based on what I am playing.