A Matter Of The Mind

Through the field of neuroscience, humans are approaching the crossroads between philosophy and science. The question being asked is not new - it is, in truth, a question that has been examined since the times of our earliest thinkers and philosophers. Today, it comes in this form: how does the mind arise from matter? In a post regarding this issue, Robert Krulwich of NPR starts by quoting Diane Ackerman: "If a mind is just a few pounds of blood, dream and electric, how does it manage to contemplate itself? Worry about its soul? Do time and motion studies?" If consciousness is viewed as simply chemical reactions, isn't the existence of free will itself challenged?

These questions will hopefully be answered one day, but the question of whether to even try is more immediate. Neuroscientists are entering a debate: is a complete mapping of the brain (a "connectome") something worth investing time and money in? If so, a stupendous amount of the two will be needed. Krulwich deals with this debate in an earlier post about the "Jennifer Anniston neuron" (one that fires abnormally often for images of the actress) and his more recent post dedicated entirely to the debate (linked earlier).

Put simply, the debate centers around practical issues. Mapping the brain could require decades of time, even with the most advanced of supercomputers in use today. With such an intangible and far goal to work towards, would the most talented and curious of scientists not become discouraged and seek exploration in other fields? On top of the cost in time, there is also the risk that the map will lead nowhere, so to speak. What if thoughts and emotions can't be "read" from the connectome?

Through this debate, we start to see science in a different light. As a new historicist reading about this issue might say, it is not always clear which "direction" is "forward," if indeed such a "direction" exists. How then, do we approach such a paradox? Neuroscientists rally together under the banner of studying and understanding the nervous system, but anything more specific than that statement might spark conflict.