Following my post on “Metaphors: Does how we think about the brain matter?”, a reader asked me about alternative brain metaphors that would be helpful to understand this complex organ and it’s functioning.

My answer: I think that’s a definite “it depends”.

The most accurate all-around metaphors will be…

Metaphors matter.

When we think about the brain as an information-processing computer (with hard-wiring, inputs and outputs, errors and bugs), we misunderstand its fundamental nature. We think we can control it, program it, like we do our machines. Tweak it. Tune it. Overclock it to drive more power through it. Hack it.

That's a problem for the way we treat our own brains, but even worse, this kind of perspective starts to drive the way we see and treat other nonlinear, complex systems -- ecologies, businesses, schools, governments. …