X-Message-Number: 15542 From: "Pat Clancy" <> Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2001 20:27:19 -0800 Subject: Re: snippet Joseph Kehoe wrote: > Researchers in Canada say that our ability to understand the thoughts of > other people - to some times "read between the lines" - appears to be > generated by a single region in the brain. And they say this discovery may > therefore hold part of the explanation for what makes us "human". > Understanding what other people are thinking is one of the qualities that sets > human beings apart from other primates. This sounds like typical neuroscience hype to me. I mean, just because I figure out that the cpu in my computer heats up when it's doing a lot of computing, doesn't mean I understand a thing about how it actually works. Localizing something in the brain is supposed to mean we understand the associated higher thought processes? I would assert that even if we had a _complete wiring diagram_ of the brain (or _a_ brain since no two could be exactly alike) we still wouldn't know much about the mind. Pat Clancy Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=15542