How come science is unable to account for human behaviour? Inb4 ""hurr psychology"...

I'm currently reading (an taking a ton of notes; this shit is hard to understand) a book on neuroscience. It's called Introduction to behavioral neuroscience, and it aims to explain behavior and motivation at a neural level.

Tough merely an introduction to the field, the book is nearly 600 pages long, with small fonts, large pages and a ton of illustrations.

What I'm slowly starting to appreciate is just how complex the anatomy mammals is. Once thing is the immense number of neuron, another thing is the (hard to grasp) number of synapses (connections between neurons); which is estimated to be around 1,5*10^14.

In addition to the sheer complexity of the neurosystem, there are the induvidual differences between all humans. Genes and DNA is one thing, but the environment one lives in also affects how the brain responds to stimuli. Just distinguishing between what is heridatery and caused by external factors is no small task.

An finally (probably omitting many relevant arguments by now) there is the eternal problem in medicine: ethics. Figuring out what is going on inside the brain by only observing from the outside creates further challenges.

Sometimes I wonder if we will have superior AI before neuroscience is "complete".

That explains autism

I think I'm gonna learn about some neuroscience just to jack my mental weenie and feel intelligent.

Thanks, man.

You should do that. Perhaps if you are fortunate, the knowledge you gain can help you lead a happier life.

If science is a practice that by definition results in measurability and predictability, then what exactly in your mind is lacking?

It can account for it, you just won't get very high confidence results.

The functions that humans share with very simple animals are well understood though, and those account for a much higher percentage of our behavior than you might imagine.

Psychology is Pseudo Science.
Neurobiology / Neurology are Nursing Tier Science for Brainlets
Neurophysics, a branch of Medical Physics is a Real & Respectable Science.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurophysics

You want to be able to figure out its precise mechanism and perhaps develop tools to control it as well. That is extraordinarily complex.

The brain is the most complex thing ever encountered by humanity. Fuck off OP.

What's there not to understand?

What makes it "complex"? Can you elaborate on what you mean?

The interaction between all the forces in our galaxy is complex, even tough (some) of the mechanisms are relatively simple.

What I'm asking user, is what makes the brain more complex then the rest of the universe?

Even if that's true, we have no idea what those "basic desires" are. Is it the desire for sex? Then why do smart people study science instead of constantly searching for a more efficient way to get laid? Is it survival? Then how do you explain martyrdom and self sacrifice to reinforce mere cultural norms? Is it survival of your genetic material? Then how are honor killings even possible?

The galaxy is mostly empty space and the forces therein behave the exact same way in all situations, for the most part.

The desire for sex isn't a real desire. It's a derivative of conquest.

It's completely possible that honor killings exist so as to disconnect genetic descendants from your family. They do so because it inflicts damage on all of the people they know and are related to.

This where it gets complicated from one point.

Martyrdom could also be a part of success and power. The Martyr knows people will pay attention to what they've done after they die. On top of this, religious terrorists don't really believe in death.

If you couple in social and genetic aspects with this, it makes sense that it occurs. It's, in a sense, still survival.

>How come science is unable to account for human behaviour?
Because it's fucking complicated.

>Is scientific method fundamentally inapplicable here?
It's totally applicable. It's just hard.

I think a good example is the tendency for intelligent people to not believe in racism.

They blind themselves to what's most obvious; because they can, and because it hurts them the most.

Despite all of the thought that goes into rationalizing away negroid IQ and racial differences, they're only doing it because it hurts.

>How come science is unable to account for human behaviour?
What the fuck are you talking about? Humans are incredibly predictable.

If you want a field that better predicts human behaviours, look into cognitive science, cognitive neuroscience, and behavioral economics.

If you want to see just how predictable human behaviour is, look no further than this list of errors that literally everyone makes
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases

and, also, check out kinesics, the study of body language.

Everything humans (and all other animals) do is fundamentally motivated by the desire to replicate in others the traits found in themselves. Evolution favours traits that self-perpetuate, you would not have the traits you do were this not the case.
"Traits" here refers both to genetic and to psychological traits (culture, religion, political stance, etc). So a suicide bomber is acting in line with evolutionary instincts because he believes that his actions will create in others the same traits that he possesses, protect others who share his traits (and allow them to spread said traits), and grant him eternal peace and pleasure.

Read

The observable universe has ~200 billion galaxies, with each having interactions with nearby galaxies, and each having complex interactions within.

The brain has ~100 billion brain cells, each having interactions with tens of thousands of other cells via synapses, and each cell having complex interactions within.

They're literally on the same scale of totality, except the brain operates as a single entity in a tiny volume, while the universe is mostly isolated pockets.

What happened to the Blue Brain project? Have they gotten any further? Last I heard they'd almost managed a rat brain IIRC