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From: tom@ccfadm.eeg.ccf.org (Thomas F Collura PhD.)
Subject: Re: The Human Brain.
Message-ID: <1995Mar22.154438.14683@bme.ri.ccf.org>
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Date: Wed, 22 Mar 1995 15:44:38 GMT
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Name withheld by request (anon1fd0@nyx10.cs.du.edu) wrote:

:  
:  
:  
:  
:     To Whom it May Concern:
:  
:  
:         How much is currently known about the human brain?
:     To clarify, I mean, if fully understanding how the brain
:     and therefore mind work was 100 percent, where are we
:     at now?
:  
:         20 percent?

It's hard to put a number on it.  We don't even know what the
concepts "consciousness" and "knowledge" mean.  Or, at least,
we don't seem to be able to agree on them.

:  
:     The reason I ask is this:  I understand that the Human
:     Genome Project is coming along rather handsomely, and
:     that the completed genome map could yield such powers
:     to the human race as cloning of people, for instance.

But even if we can produce a complete input-output mapping,
and state transition, etc., we don't necessarily "understand"
it.  There are "emergent" properties that must be grasped.
A quantum physicist may understand chemical bonding, but
that doesn't make him understand molecular dynamics.
(Unless that physicist is Linus Pauling)

:        From a pragmatic standpoint, do you (plural) think that
:     the human brain can ever be understood, and if so, when?

Probably never.  No more than an ant can understand itself.
It doesn't have the conceptual machinery to do so.
We might understand motor control, memory (someday), etc.
But to understand "conscious awareness" or other things
we consider uniquely human may be out of reach.

:  
:        Is there any research institution currently working on
:     answering this question as its sole or primary goal?

Many groups are working on particular areas: modeling, cognitive
theory, neurophysiology, behavior, etc.  There are some psychophysiology
groups on the net.  see bionet.neuroscience, for example.

:          3. Is it generally felt in the medical/research/scientific
:             community that the brain is, realistically speaking,
:             substantially potentially understandable, and if this is
:             the case, when would such an understanding be realized?

Depends on who you talk to.  Look up Patricia Churchland, she has
many articles, and a book "Neurophilosophy" that is quite good.
However, you must first define what it is to "understand" the brain.

:  
:          4. Are any research groups or institutions seriously trying
:             to systematically address/answer the issue/question of
:             fully understanding the human brain, and if so, who are
:             they?

There are notable researchers, including Francis Crick, Benjamin
Libet, and others.  William Calvin, David Ornstein, Julian Jaynes,
many, many others have written books.  Gerald Edelmann.  This is just
a start; my apologies for whomever I didn't mention.

:          6. Is there any extant published work or collection of
:             articles that explains, in toto, how the brain works
:             from the standpoints of:
:  
:                        a. psychology
:                        b. neuropsychology
:                        c. physiology
:                        d. histology
:                        e. neuroanatomy
:                        f. holistic overview of neuronal,
:                           processing, and subprocessing centers
:                           and their hierarchial relationships
:                           and/or direct inter/intrarelationships

Again, Churchland seems to have one of the best summary analyses out there.
But more questions can be asked than can be answered.  We are still
trying to formulate the questions.

:  
:          7. Has the full neuronal structure of any human brain
:             ever been mapped (down to the cellular level, of course)?

No way.   You are talking about 100 billion cells, each with thousands
of connections.  And even a mapping is not useful if you don't know
what you're looking at.

:  
:         8. To all computer/AI scientists:  Had you detailed answers
:            to the abovementioned questions, what else would you need
:            (in terms of knowledge, aside from that knowledge that is
:            already known in your fields) to construct a true machine
:            intelligence, not an emulator, but a device/apparatus that
:            would function as the human brain does?

And how would you know if was intelligent, or just seemed so?

These are all important questions; more people should ask them.

I wonder if folks would be interested in a group just on this topic?
