Self Comprehension

2010-07-25

A lot of brilliant people have spent a lot of time studying the (intangible) mind and the (physical) brain. But ironically, all the efforts of philosophy, psychology, sociology, and cognitivism have made remarkably little progress. We still have yet to come close to understanding how any aspect of human creativity, emotion, or problem solving works. In fact, everyone is still struggling to define what these things are.

This begs the questions: are we mentally capable of understanding our minds and our brains?

But wait, perhaps a more important question is: why is there is such a strong interest in having an exact understanding of the mind and brain. And why has such research become so centered around artificial intelligence?

There seems to be a fantasy about power and control over our own minds and the minds of others. If we can see and understand how the mind and brain work, then we can perfect ourselves, and engineer others according to what we believe is right. We could create perfect friends, lovers, intellects, workers, and soldiers. But the mind/brain seems to be a kind of ecosystem, where cause and effect are exceedingly unpredictable. Is it really possible to micromanage the mind and brain?