Quotes
Link to originalInterplay between the whole and its parts
Much like the macro level, shortcomings are evident in the micro-level as well. Neuroscience generates enormous amounts of detailed observational data. Where regions are discretized and studied in isolation.
Unfortunately, the whole cannot be understood by observing the individual. This principle is true of the economy, of ant colonies, and as well as of brains. We will not be able to understand intelligence by observing single actors. Neurons are individual agents in a local-decentralized system. They compete for resources with their neighbors while cooperating in order to achieve beneficial results for the whole. This concept is perfectly summarized in the words of Friedrich Engels, “For what each individual wills is obstructed by everyone else, and what emerges is something that no one willed.” Engels said this in reference to an economy, however, the application to neuroscience and the emergence of intelligence are equally satisfying.
Link to originalvertebrates. Their essential character: the grouping of the whole body about the nervous system. Thereby the development of self-consciousness, etc. becomes possible. In all other animals the nervous system is a secondary affair, here it is the basis of the whole organisation. - Friedrich Engels
“When one individual inflicts bodily injury upon another such injury that death results, we call the deed manslaughter; when the assailant knew in advance that the injury would be fatal, we call his deed murder. But when society places hundreds of proletarians in such a position that they inevitably meet a too early and an unnatural death, one which is quite as much a death by violence as that by the sword or bullet; when it deprives thousands of the necessaries of life, places them under conditions in which they cannot live – forces them, through the strong arm of the law, to remain in such conditions until that death ensues which is the inevitable consequence – knows that these thousands of victims must perish, and yet permits these conditions to remain, its deed is murder just as surely as the deed of the single individual; disguised, malicious murder, murder against which none can defend himself, which does not seem what it is, because no man sees the murderer, because the death of the victim seems a natural one, since the offence is more one of omission than of commission. But murder it remains.” ― Frederich Engels