Up until now, when people have said they were “of two minds” on a matter, it was nothing more than metaphorical imagery. Researchers at Stanford have made it quite literal: They’ve uncovered provocative evidence that the brain and the brain stem (or “hindbrain”) are two different organs. They’re inseparable but separate.
■ This is really important news for medical research: The ability to conduct research at the cellular level depends on having the right cells, and one of the chief implications of this discovery is that all “brain” cells are not created equal. If we want to make progress on brainstem-related diseases like ALS, making the distinction could be a significant milestone.
■ It’s also another reason we should be skeptical of anyone’s claims about having uncovered anything like artificial general intelligence -- or even a grand unified theory of the human mind. If it’s literally just coming as news to us right now that the “brain” is actually two different organs (with separate evolutionary histories!), then we can hardly say that we know everything there is to know about ourselves.
■ It also means we should give an enormous amount of credence to the understanding that the brain isn’t simply a rational calculating machine that accepts simple inputs and produces logical outputs. It’s an organ engaged in a sort of complex ballet with other organs, and we ought to approach sciences like psychology with an appreciation for the influence of other systems working in and for the body.
■ If we’ve only fairly recently uncovered that the digestive system is in a two-way influence loop with the brain, then we should be looking all over for signs of other sources of unexpected influence. Our brains are what really set us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. But now we may be coming to realize that what matters to making the “self” is a systemic concern that reaches far beyond the old model of a single wrinkled organ squished inside the skull.