Re: If we knew how our brain functioned, would it change human psychology?

Dear Pejman, thank you very much for your interesting question. I should 
point out that your question tends to be partly philosophical as opposed to 
a purely scientific inquiry, but I'll try to cover it from both 
perspectives.  From a scientific point of view, we are still a long way off 
from truly understanding the human brain. Although our brains only weigh 
about three pounds, they contain billions of neurons and an even greater 
number of neural connections that makes the brain an extremely complicated 
organism.  Compounding the problem is the fact that it very difficult to 
study how the brain functions while the subject is still alive.  Despite new 
technology like PET scans, nMRI, CAT scans and the like, the brain is 
proving to be much more complicated that we had previously envisioned.  Even 
if we were to overcome these difficulties the question becomes whether the 
brain undergoes some changes simply as a result of being studied.  This is 
an interesting  issue in the field of quantum mechanics, and in fact some 
people believe that at these levels of inquiry, the study of physics and 
consciousness merge.  However, I'm afraid that at this point in time, I do 
not have an adequate answer for this question. 

Another dilemma that your question poses is that of individual differences. 
My own bias is that at some point in the future, we may be able to more 
accurately predict (or perhaps control) the behavior of large groups of 
people, but I do not think this will ever occur for individuals. Although 
the brains of humans are similar to each other, none of them are exactly 
alike, and therefore we will never to be able to totally predict what one 
individual will do at a certain point of time.  Added to this complexity is 
the role of the environment which is constantly changing, and the role of 
evolution, which is constantly adapting to the environment.  One of the 
newer areas of inquiry that is starting to look at these types of questions 
is chaos theory, and I have included some internet sites for you to pursue. 


A topic area that is related to your question and which raises comparable 
ethical and philosophical issues is genetic engineering. Almost everyone has 
sometimes wished they had a trait they that they lacked, such as being 
taller or having a different eye color. It's not out of the question to 
think that scientists might someday be able to create particular traits 
(including behavioral ones) through genetic manipulation.   Scientists 
already are starting to cure diseases by inserting certain genes into human 
beings to fix the defective ones that cause abnormalities. Researchers have 
also genetically engineered mice, rats, and other animals in order to study 
illnesses: They have created fat rats to study diabetes and mice with the 
immune deficiency disease lupus in an effort to find treatments and cures 
for these disorders. This  controversy heated up recently when the Fox 
Network debuted a show based on the premise that a secret military plot was 
creating children who were genetically enhanced to have super vision, 
astounding strength, catlike reflexes, and supernatural hearing.  I believe 
we are much closer to accomplishing these types of changes as compared to 
fully understanding how our brains work. 

From a philosophical point of view, would we really want to live in a 
society where most or all "abnormalities" were cured or where most people 
acted or thought and perhaps even looked  alike?   This was the premise of 
the book "Brave New World", and if you have not already done so, I would 
highly recommend that you read this book.   I  personally believe that 
diversity is the spice of life and ultimately the key to our survival.  If 
every man looked like Rock Hudson and every women looked like Marilyn 
Monroe, and further had the intelligence of Albert Einstein, what a terribly 
boring place earth would become!

The following are internet sites that give information related to your 
question.  

http://hendrix.imm.dtu.dk/ 

http://www.sfn.org/ 
 
http://www.transhumanist.com/volume1/moravec.htm 

http://www.ex.ac.uk/~arcstuar/sci.htm 

http://www.zynet.co.uk/imprint/Tucson/Webauth.htm