ABSTRACT
I am less impressed with the analogies of various machines and neural activity such as are discussed in “cybernetics.” There has been a curious parallel in the histories of neurological theories and of paranoid delusional systems. In Mesmer's day the paranoic was persecuted by malicious animal magnetism; his successors, by galvanic shocks, by the telegraph, by radio, by radar, keeping their delusional systems up-to-date with the latest fashions in physics. Descartes was impressed by the hydraulic figures in the royal gardens and developed a hydraulic theory of the action of the brain. We have since had telephone theories, electrical field theories, and now, theories based on the computing machines and automatic rudders. I suggest that we are more likely to find out how the brain works by studying the brain itself and the phenomena of behavior than by indulging in far-fetched physical analogies. The similarities in such comparisons are the product of an oversimplification of the problems of behavior.
