The New York Times Discovers Neuro-Science

There is a convergence going on over at the NYT over the last few days. First, this interesting article on how researchers are unlocking the chemistry of memory, and have demonstrated how to disrupt that reaction in lab rats (i.e. induced amnesia) Fascanating, but for a longer view about the origins of the field (which is not as new as the NYT thinks), a good read is Soul Made Flesh: The Discovery of the Brain--and How it Changed the World.

Of course for those of you of a more philosophical bent, please read David Brooks this weekend as he muses about the evolutionary roots of morality. Its actually an interesting question, I have often held that morality is simply a construct we use to identify the line where we cease to believe that the ends justifies the means.

Unfortunately for the absolutists out there, that line moves. It moves for each individual and every society. It changes for each action, big or small. Can I take this penny off the floor? Can I eat the last piece of bacon? Is it OK to plunder the pension fund of a small town in east Kansas? All of these questions require making a decision about ends and means. Draw that circle too tightly and you will cease to be effective in the world. Draw it too wide and you risk becoming a monster. According to the people Brooks is speaking with, those choices are influenced by two competing ideas. The idea of competition with other groups of people balanced against cooperation within our own group.

I believe that ultimately all human behavior can be reconciled in some way to an evolutionary imperative, our task at this stage of our history is to figure out what they are without resorting to the easy answers of theology or compulsion.

After all, the first step towards a cure is identifying the problem.