David Brooks on the revolution going on within the neuroscience revolution–the notion that something mysterious emerges out of functional brain activity….

Money quote:

Over the past several years, the momentum has shifted away from hard-core materialism. The brain seems less like a cold machine. It does not operate like a computer. Instead, meaning, belief and consciousness seem to emerge mysteriously from idiosyncratic networks of neural firings. Those squishy things called emotions play a gigantic role in all forms of thinking. Love is vital to brain development.

Researchers now spend a lot of time trying to understand universal moral intuitions. Genes are not merely selfish, it appears. Instead, people seem to have deep instincts for fairness, empathy and attachment.

I have a collaborator in India (we share a graduate student) who thinks along these lines. It’s quite exciting.

Jim