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In the recent June issue of Wired magazine there is a provocative article on contemporary efforts, involving colossal financial and computer investments, to create comprehensive models and real time technological simulations of the human brain (See "The $1.3B Quest to Build a Supercomputer Replica of a Human Brain" by Jonathon Keats). Aside from such initiatives promising the eventual scientific knowledge and technological know-how to rectify various brain disorders--if we can understand how the mechanisms of the brain work in sufficient detail we can fix the dysfunctions--we should also be able to experimentally introduce various design improvements in the system as well, such as increased memory capacity and thinking speed. As Francis Bacon argued "knowledge is power," and if we understand how the brain works as demonstrated through working simulations of it, we can make it work better.

Transhumanist philosophy, in particular, expresses the hope that through increased scientific understanding of nature (in this case the brain) and scientifically grounded technological know-how (building functional brain simulations) we should be able to "transcend" our present bodily limitations (which, of course, include present capacities of the typical functioning human brain) and advance our powers and abilities along multiple dimensions, including those grounded in our neurological systems.

I am not going to criticize such scientific and technological goals; in fact, I support them, for humans have always tried to improve themselves, using whatever resources and know-how they possessed at that moment in time. It is our very nature, as self-conscious and self-evaluative beings, to attempt to make ourselves better. The ongoing challenge, though, is determining WHAT is better, especially when we address our mental capacities, which our physical brains support. What would be a better human being? What would be a better human mind? Surely not simply more memory or faster processing speed. Since time immemorial we have debated and fought over various ideals regarding what an improvement in the human mind would be.

This is where wisdom comes in. Over the years I have come to the conclusion (a conclusion that is open to revision or further development) that the concept of wisdom provides a holistic and comprehensive ideal for our individual development and future collective evolution. The human mind is a multi-faceted reality (including thoughts, emotions, motives, perceptions, memories, and self-awareness) and if we are going to talk about improving the mind we need to address all its basic features and capacities. Wisdom, indeed, is a multi-faceted psychological capacity, incorporating the cognitive, emotional, motivational, and behavioral--it fits the bill as a sufficiently holistic ideal. We may need more smarts, but we also need more hope, love, and courage--all of which are features of wisdom.  

Of special note, we need an ideal of self-improvement that focuses on our ethical character. It is clearly not enough to become simply smarter; we need to become more ethically evolved. Wisdom provides an ethical anchor for our further evolution.  

In general, wisdom is both the means and the end of our ongoing journey of self-improvement: We should use wisdom in guiding our actions toward self-improvement (especially including scientific research and technological implementation), and we should aspire toward the qualities of wisdom as the central ideals of our further self-improvement.

So, if we want to tinker with our brains, then how do we create brains that support or allow for wiser minds? (See Stephen Hall's Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience.) And what would it mean to guide with wisdom the methods and direction of our neurological research toward this end?

With all the ongoing research on the brain, one of the central goals of such research is to understand the connection between the brain and consciousness. This is a central question in Koch's book. See also Antonio Damasio's book Self Comes to Mind, which came out a couple of years ago, for another informative exploration of this topic.

It seems to me that when we talk about self-improvement, a central feature of this quest is the evolution of human consciousness. We are indeed conscious beings with physical brains (and bodies). Consciousness is at the core of our existence--of what and who we are. This is what we want to improve or evolve--our consciousness.  

I am totally in resonance with Koch that consciousness can be investigated through science and that consciousness is part of nature. In spite of numerous claims to the contrary, it seems to me that consciousness manifests itself within a physical body within a physical world. There are no disembodied conscious minds. (My view on this is neither physical reductionism nor supernatural transcendentalism.) In my mind, understanding the brain is essential in our quest to understand consciousness.

So yes--let's embrace transhumanism and efforts to technologically simulate the human brain. But while we are at it, we should aspire toward transcending to wiser states of consciousness and work toward understanding how to enhance our brains (and our bodies as well) to provide the necessary physical support systems to realize such goals.

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Beginning this fall, I began publishing two newsletters: the revitalized and redesigned

Wisdom Page Updates and 

Futurodyssey (the monthly publication of the

Center for Future Consciousness).  So readers can view earlier issues, both newsletters now have

Archive Pages. View the Wisdom Page Updates Archive Page; view the Futurodyssey Archive Page. The reader can subscribe to the Wisdom Page Updates on The Wisdom Page Contact Page; the reader can subscribe to the

Futurodyssey newsletter by going to the CFC website.  

That's it for this month: My editorial on "Brains, Wisdom, and the Evolution of Consciousness," the online course on virtues focusing on compassion this month, book reviews on the brain and consciousness and the mystery of existence, an update on my Philosophy and the Future Salon, and ongoing wisdom research at the University of Chicago. Thanks for reading the Updates.

Special thanks to my wife, Jeanne Lombardo, for editing every month all the material I write for inclusion in the Updates.