so, how should one go about trying to understand how a brain works

so, how would one go about understanding how a computer works. well, unfortunately, the answer to this question largely depends on the motivation for asking it. for instance, if one knows how a PC works, but not a mac, then the answer would look very different then the answer to the same question from somebody who knows nothing about computers at all. thus, to appropriately answer the question: "how should one go about trying to understand how the brain works?" one should probably first specify a set of motivating factors (and maybe also desirata). so, some things we'd like include:

1) memory augmentation: our memories are limited in ways that are often detrimental to quality of life. how often is one arguing about whether or not one spouted a particular utterance? also, if i could remember everything i learned, i wouldn't need to look things up again, or even keep books after reading them.

2) optimal learning: we spend a large fraction of our lives learning knowledge that we then apply to our daily lives, whether it is in the form of wisdom or semantic information or something else, it often takes many years for us to achieve satisfactory mastering of a discipline. if we could learn more faster, technology and development could advance faster as well.

3) creative juices: while "creativity" is not particularly well understood feature of the human experience (at least i haven't found a satisfactory account of it), i still feel comfortable suggesting that if we were more creative, we could more quickly find better solutions to current problems.

4) "objective" perspectives: our lack of predictive power often results in our experiences being severely biased by previous experience. if we could somehow "objectify" our perceptions, we may be better at predicting the responses of others, and therefore be able to have more fruitful relationships.

5) better language: surely, languages are a very cool invention (or discovery, depending on perspective). and yet, they are not quite as expressive as they could be. some ideas are very difficult to express using language (for instance, abstract concepts such as the wave-particle duality). it would be great if somehow we could make languages have more expressive power.

6) love: something we all (or nearly all) of us want more of, both on the receiving and giving sides. if everybody loved one another, i imagine that many of todays problems would cease. clearly, this is a very hippie-dippie idea, and maybe seems somewhat in juxtaposition with a set of desirata for contemporary neuroscience. but, who better to figure out such a thing?

7) introspective accuracy: a common finding in psychological studies is that introspection is simply not that accurate. it'd be great if when we reflected on why we responded in the way we did, we could be more accurate.

although i have just enumerated 7 desirata, only the first two are "real" neuroscientific questions, in the sense that only two can even be expressed as questions using a neural vocabulary. the relationship between neural hardware and creativity, perspective, language, love, and introspection is so tenuous at this point, that it is probably not even worth considering until further notice. furthermore, the first two: learning and memory, are conserved evolutionarily, so we can start out by studying significantly simpler systems.

as a side note, people may argue with my desirata. ok, i'm not for everyone, and neither are my ideas. i'm happy to hear about alternative desirata...