Comment by user_7832
2 months ago
I hate to "umm, akshually" but apparently we have been studying the brain for thousands of years. I wasn't talking about purely modern neuroscience (which ironically for our topic of emergence, (often till recently/still in most places) treats the brain as the sum of its parts - be them neurons or neurotransmitters).
> The earliest reference to the brain occurs in the Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus, written in the 17th century BC.
I was actually thinking of ancient greeks when writing my comment, but I suppose Egyptians have even older records than them.
None of that counts as studying the brain. It's like saying rubbing sticks together to make fire counts as studying atomic energy. Those early "researchers" were hopelessly far away from even the most tangential understanding of the workings of the brain.
But fundamentally speaking, they were trying to understand the brain, right? IMO that counts as science/study in my books. They understood parts/basics of intracranial pressure so long back.
And if we say it's not science if it's not correct, well, (modern) physics isn't a science then, right? ;) As we haven't unified relativity with quantum mechanics?