First off, what do we mean by these terms? Einstein’s Brain is very straightforward –it is merely the brain of the greatest physicist of the twentieth century. On the other hand, a brain full of Einsteins is a little different. We can conceive of there being a collection of Einstein’s in a room, talking and bickering with each other. From interactions between these many Einsteins, they come to a decision on whatever needs to be done. What are the differences between these two different conceptions of thought? Einstein’s brain is just made up of millions of neurons, all interacting near-instantaneously to come up with a decision. How is this any different than many Einsteins, all interacting to come up with their decision?
The major difference is the level at which the interactions are happening. In Einstein’s brain, neurons are during furious parallel processing at the microscopic level. In a brain of Einsteins, many different instances of Einstein are talking to each other at the human level – with speech and recognizable forms of communication. Of course, those same Einsteins also are made up those very neurons. The brain of Einsteins simply has another level of interactions. This extra level of interactions enable the brain of Einsteins to be more perceptive and decisive. In addition, different Einsteins could think of different aspects of a problem and collaborate to come up with a solution!
This was a really bold post, as it’s the first to argue for a brain made of Einsteins rather than Einstein’s brain.
I guess it depends on what one is using the brain for; if one were using the brain of Einsteins solely for thinking purposes, the added brainpower might be useful in terms of storage space and think-tanking. If, however, the brain were to be used in terms of, say, a normal brain, we discussed in class the many ways such a venture (brain of Einsteins) might go wrong. I guess it is not only the level (as mentioned by a few other posts and class) but also the function for which the main purpose of the object is to be used for?