ABSTRACT
Warren McCulloch—certainly the most philosophical mind among cyberneticians—has gone so far as to declare neurophysiology as the fundamental science of an “experimental epistemology,” making explicit reference to Hermann von Helmholtz’s projected physiological theory of knowledge: We have an algorithm to determine from anatomy those functions of its inputs that a given neuron can compute. Electroencephalography opened to research on the brain a new, fascinatingly ambivalent knowledge space. On one hand, the method seemed “exceedingly simple,” because the repeatedly confirmed and typical alpha waves could be easily and quickly registered along with their inhibition, provided the required recording devices were available. On the other hand, it was “exceedingly complex,” because even with the most difficult instruments and most sophisticated research designs, it was not possible to find a plausible explanation for those highly regular, surprisingly slow, and astonishingly rhythmic electrofluctuations.
