The Barrenness of Brain Study

            A science gradually wins by demonstrating success.  The physical sciences laid a foundation for steam engines and refrigerators and electronic computers.  The nay sayers gradually went into apathy and accepted trains and refrigerators and computers.  They accepted the conquest of the physical universe facilitated by the physical sciences, because it was irrefutable.

            What corresponding conquest has been afforded by brain studies and the so-called “breakthroughs” in neurophysiology?  Is man today happier than he was before the advent of modern psychology?  Does man have fewer problems with his mind?  Has man’s inhumanity toward man diminished?  The answer, obviously, is a resounding “No”.  If anything, we find modern man less happy, more nuts (ask the Surgeon General of the United States), more brutal toward his fellow man.

            As a previously neutral observer looking for tangible accomplishments, I am forced to conclude that the study of the brain has been a dead end.  As far as I am aware, brain study and brain theorizing have not resulted in anything useful, have not yeilded anything resembling the laws of Newton or Ohm or Joule or Einstein.  To a previously neutral observer, it looks like brain study has born no fruit whatsoever except more brain study – and lots of unfulfiled promises.

            Even if we go so far as to grant that brain-study is a valid topic for pure research, when does it make the leap from pure research to practical research?  When do we start getting a return on our investment?  When do we start seeing a happier and saner and kinder world?  When does the rubber hit the road?

            Or, on the other hand, when does the time arrive when we must render a verdict:  “Well, you’ve had your 125 years.  You’ve had your chance to better the lot of mankind, and you blew it.  It’s time for you guys to step aside and let someone else have a go at it.”