[Ads-l] Modern Adage: If the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn't. (1977 attributed to Emerson M. Pugh)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The logic twisting statement in the subject line makes a strong claim
about the infeasibility of one influential approach to artificial
intelligence (AI). Researchers like Ray Kurzweil (now at Google)
believe that AI can be advanced by reverse engineering the brain.
Whether this is true or false, I think the adage is interesting, and
I've been asked to trace it.

Further below are two citations in 1980 that require verification, and
I will be asking for help off list. However, if you would like to
volunteer that would be great; please contact me off list.

The earliest evidence I've located appeared in a 1977 book. The author
credited his father, Emerson M. Pugh, with the saying and stated in a
footnote that his father employed it circa 1938.

[ref] 1977, The Biological Origin of Human Values by George Edgin
Pugh, (Chapter 7: Mysteries of the Mind, epigraph and footnote), Quote
Page 154, Basic Books, New York. (Verified on paper)[/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
If the human brain were so simple
That we could understand it,
We would be so simple
That we couldn't.
                          Emerson M. Pugh *
[End excerpt]

[Begin excerpt]
* Author's note: Quote from my father around 1938.
[End footnote]

The other candidate for originator of the saying is Lyall Watson.
There is a match in Google Books in a journal in 1980. Immediately
below is the partial data from GB. Further below is conjectural data
that names the article that probably contains the quotation.

Date: 1980 (According to GB)
Periodical: Alternative Futures: The Journal of Utopian Studies
Quote Page 16 (According to GB)

Date: Fall 1980 (Conjecture)
Article Title: Evolutionary Illuminations (Conjecture)
Article Author: Henryk Skolimowski (Conjecture)
Quote Page GB 16, Start Page 3 (Conjecture)
Call number: CB161 .A45 (UNC)

[Begin extracted text]
Perhaps the simplicity of this relationship will reveal itself when we
become more complex, in the sense, for example, in which Lyall Watson
talks about the brain: "if our brain were so simple that we could
understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn't."
[End extracted text]

Another match in Google Books appeared in the proceedings of a
conference. The quotation ends with a footnote number, and it would be
very helpful to know what the footnote says.

Year: 1980
Conference Name: Symposium on Music Teaching and Research
Conference Location: Bowling Green State University
Document Title: Contributions to Symposium
Voulme: 1
Contributors, Thomas A. Regelski et al.
Editor: P. Thomas Tallarico
Publisher: Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio
Call Number: MT1 .B705 1980 (at UGA Repository)
Quote Page 9
Note: Data from GB snippet may be inaccurate. Wish to verify citation
and learn more about footnote 4

[Begin extracted text]
Biologist Lyall Watson, at a recent symposium on Consciousness,
described what he called "the Catch-22 of the biology of
consciousness. If the human brain were so simple that we could
understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn't!" 4
[End extracted text]

Garson

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org