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While neuroscientists look forward eagerly to the day when they will under stand how the brain works, some people feel that they have already gone too far. There are those who fear that new drugs and surgical techniques could be used to impose a form of "mind control" on nonconformists, tranquilize prisoners or inmates of mental hospitals, and tame those whose behavior or ideas society finds troubling. They note that psychosurgery is being widely used in Japan to calm down hyperactive children. They also observe with alarm the tendency of some school physicians to recommend drug treatment for these schoolchildren. Others, on a more philosophical level, are concerned lest the neurosciences succeed in erasing the factitious Line between "mind" and "brain" and reduce man to a collection of neurons.
Neuroscientists generally appreciate their concern. "It is a measure of the distrust with which science is now viewed that people automatically think first of the evil that scientific knowledge can bring," says M.I.T.'s Teuber. "It's as if we're suffering from some sort of Manhattan Project complex."
Most neuroscientists agree that their science can be abused but doubt that it will be. Schmitt, for example, feels that fear of thought control is unreasonable. "When it comes to thought control," he says, "politicians and journalists do a better job than neuroscientists." Instead, the brain researchers stress that the benefits resulting from their research would far outweigh the dangers. An understanding of how the brain works could lead to treatments for some forms of mental retardation. A greater knowledge of what takes place during learning could result in improvement in teaching techniques. Even human intelligence might be increased as a result.
A breakthrough could also lead to the kind of social evolution that might help prevent the conflicts that now set man against man and nation against nation. "Most of our evolution has been somatic," says Schmitt. "We've changed our shape. But if we could really understand ourselves and by extension each other, we could evolve socially as well." That kind of evolution, Schmitt contends, may well be necessary for the continuation of the species. "Armies aren't the key to man's survival," he says. "Governments are not enough. Treaties are not enough. Only self-knowledge will help man to survive."
The ocean that separates man from this self-knowledge remains to be charted. Crossing it will require money, dedication, ingenuity and the development of a whole new field of science and technology. The explorers of the brain have embarked on a journey even more significant than the voyage of Columbus in 1492. Columbus discovered a new continent. The explorers of the brain may well discover a new world.