On Wed, 19 Nov 2003, Eubulides wrote:
> 'The brain can't lie'
>
> Brain scans can reveal how you think and feel, and even how you might
> behave. No wonder the CIA and big business are interested. By Ian Sample
> and David Adam
>
> Thursday November 20, 2003
> The Guardian
>
> As scientists unravel the links between how the brain looks and how it
> functions, some believe we will also be able to use images of the brain to
> see how people will behave. "There's no scientific distinction between
> prediction and understanding how the brain works," says Stephen Smith,
> associate director of the Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
> of the Brain at Oxford University.
This is what drives me nuts about the neurocog stuff: in what naive, undergraduate textbook universe is science simply making predictions? This is completely backwards: If we understand X, we can make effective predictions, but the predictions are derived from the scientific theory! Moreover, you can make predictions, they can be supported by data, and they can be completely irrelevant to an understanding of X.
Understanding is not prediction.
Miles