re: structure, yes, it is made of cortical columns, and yes there's some global wiring, nobody's been doubting that.

I created a new topic for that . The issue with attributing brain functionality to evolution is the immense difficulty of coding any specific wiring in the DNA, especially in mammals. Insects can do it - going through several generations in a year, and having the genome that controls the brain down to individual neurons. Mammals aren't structured like this, and live much too long.