Mysteries Of The Human Brain

Studying the human brain has been much in the news lately due to Barack Obama's mentioning it in his 2nd state of the union address. John Markoff of the New York Times gives us the details in Obama Seeking to Boost Study of Human Brain.

The Obama administration is planning a decade-long scientific effort to examine the workings of the human brain and build a comprehensive map of its activity, seeking to do for the brain what the Human Genome Project did for genetics.

The project, which the administration has been looking to unveil as early as March, will include federal agencies, private foundations and teams of neuroscientists and nanoscientists in a concerted effort to advance the knowledge of the brain’s billions of neurons and gain greater insights into perception, actions and, ultimately, consciousness...

Moreover, the project holds the potential of paving the way for advances in artificial intelligence.

The project, which could ultimately cost billions of dollars, is expected to be part of the president’s budget proposal next month. And, four scientists and representatives of research institutions said they had participated in planning for what is being called the Brain Activity Map project.

The details are not final, and it is not clear how much federal money would be proposed or approved for the project in a time of fiscal constraint or how far the research would be able to get without significant federal financing.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama cited brain research as an example of how the government should “invest in the best ideas.”

“Every dollar we invested to map the human genome returned $140 to our economy — every dollar,” he said. “Today our scientists are mapping the human brain to unlock the answers to Alzheimer’s. They’re developing drugs to regenerate damaged organs, devising new materials to make batteries 10 times more powerful. Now is not the time to gut these job-creating investments in science and innovation.”

Well, this project is long overdue! The Brain Activity Map is yet another government-funded Big Science  project, and thus it is yet another form of stimulus designed to lift our depressed economy out of the doldrums. But that quibble aside, there are many brain mysteries to be explored, including, for example, this one—

Indeed, after the speech, Francis S. Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, may have inadvertently confirmed the plan when he wrote in a Twitter message: “Obama mentions the #NIH Brain Activity Map in #SOTU.”

The mystery here is why humans continue to believe they can communicate something of importance in 140 characters or less, including spaces (" ").

But that is a trivial example. Far deeper mysteries remain to be explored. Let's look at some of them, shall we?

In this typical example, and in millions of other "zombie" cases just like it, the same neural networks—the "economic growth" circuits, the "blame the Republicans" circuits—keep firing over and over again. It's as if all the other brain circuits are dead or never used. To paraphrase Einstein, insanity is saying or doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. It's as though this poor man (and many others like him) are in the grip of an overwhelming, uncontrollable obsessive-compulsive disorder. Colloquially speaking, such people are said to be "stuck in a rut".

The blind optimist presents a genuine conundrum for brain science. Although humans are generally optimistic, even in the face of overwhelming evidence confirming that Obligatory Hope is a form of self-deluson, some humans, like Matt Ridley pictured above, are so optimistic that no bad news of any kind can be countenanced. Let me put it this way—if Ridley were aboard the Titanic shortly after it collided with that iceberg, and the ship was already listing at an alarming 45° angle on its way to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, Matt would be singing the praises of Human Ingenuity, confident that the screaming people sliding off the boat might still find a way to get it upright again.

In this disturbing, profoundly mysterious example, the "higher" brain functions embodied in the cerebral cortex are entirely subservient to the reptilian/early mammalian "lower" parts of the brain, which results in an endless, insatiable, rapacious desire to fuck over other humans for personal gain. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, pictured here, is archetypal in this respect, but unfortunately, this creepy (and very dangerous) brain malfunction is more common than generally supposed. Why such people are not quickly diagnosed and subsequently locked up is another profound mystery yet to be plumbed. On the contrary, they are accorded great respect!

Here we have the most profound brain mystery of all. In this extraordinary specimen, we observe all sorts of physical activity—writing, reading, traveling, eating, drinking, you name it—but there is no discernable brain activity of any kind, as measured by an electroencephalogram (EEG) or using any other method. We can only hope that the Brain Activity Map project will eventually explain how this is possible.

These are only a few of the many examples where there is clearly a deep brain mystery to be unraveled. Perhaps we can look forward to the day—perhaps it will be their last day on Earth—when some wise members of Homo sapiens can assert with great certainty exactly why it is that humans are such astonishing fuck-ups.

Comments

[Diogenes]

deeper mysteries...

“Like apes, we breed, sleep, and die. Yet like God we say, "I am." We are ontological oxymorons.” Peter Kreeft

Lov'n it Dave - thanks

[Dave Cohen]

Well, Diogenes, I am aware that you know exactly what I'm up to on DOTE, whereas I suspect that many others are still a little hazy about this little project of mine, which to my knowledge is unique on the internet.

But you are not alone in this respect, and I do appreciate that.

best,

-- Dave

[Oliver]

Dave - Here's my take. If everyone was like you in brain function, we'd have created a completely different existence on this small piece of rock orbiting an average star in a peripheral arm of the galaxy. And the above specimen genotypes would as a minimum be extinct.

Alternatively, if everyone was like the specimens you present to us today, then your blog of interpretive writings wouldn't exist and you and all the rest of us would be fucking people over like the best of 'em.

Whether BAM (Brain Activity Map) is any better than BAMM-BAMM (Rubble) in detecting the reasons for the differences between you and these specimens, my rational conclusion is that there must be at least two species of human walking the planet today.

This thesis has been growing in my own brain every time I listen closely to great music. Surely there is no way Miles Davis and Lloyd Blankfein are one and the same species! (Both bring tears to my eyes, but for wholly different reasons.)

[Diogenes]

"...unique on the internet."

Only place I can set down my lantern and rest a while.

And I surely do appreciate that.

Muchas Gracias, Amigo

[John D]

Great article! Love how you describe Freidman (the lights are on....). I'm pretty sure he writes his column with a random word generator that spits out a country, a technology and a blurb about worldwide growth and competitiveness that his assistant forms into a column.

I do find that the more I learn about the brain and its inner workings, the less I believe in free will. A bit creepy in a way. Maybe some things are best left to the imagination, particularly when the government will most likely have to cut social programs to pay for this.

[Petros]

Calling the replication of the workings of brains, such as those you so wittily have presented in this piece, artificial intelligence is a disrespect to Alan Turing the least.

I prefer we never achieve such a degree of computation if that is our benchmark for intelligence - otherwise instead of simply cranking out solutions computers will start spitting out self-serving delusional bullshit as well...

[Charlie Thornton]

Humans are astonishing fuck-ups because they don't think they are. A little humility may save the species, but it won't happen since they are not inclined towards it.

[Aboc Zed]

Why should we want to save the species of f***-**s?

If they are destined to go extinct - so be it. It does not mean that evolution of life stops: it is almost certain that while homo sapiens sapiens dies off an off-shoot of it evolves the capability to survive.

Of course it would have to be on many dimensions a step forward compared to homo sapiens.

Nature does not care about homo sapiens odr anything else. Life simply keeps on going, the web of life changes constantly: some species die others thrive and take over the freed up space and resources.

Death is the best invention of Life: it clears the space and provides building blocs to be recycled by the part of life's networked web that keeps on going.

[Georgia Meyers]

Thank you for this post, Dave.The look on Krugmans face is priceless.I laughed out loud.

[Lou]

Dave - this is priceless. Please continue to spin your (justifiable) angst into further comedy gold - the last refuge of the hopelessly aware on this journey of epic destruction.

[gretchen]

Ditto what Lou said, but truthfully I fear the social engineering aspect behind this new "science" project.