In a recent NPR broadcast on the wonders of the human brain,
we learned how researchers have been able to identify particular regions used
for specific tasks and emotions. Such as the finding that people who are happy
tend to have a larger precuneus, a structure also thought responsible
for consciousness.
These are indeed miraculous times, that we can inspect our
own brain and determine what makes us self-aware, what makes us feel happy,
which regions might cause insomnia, and how we learn language. One scholar exclaimed
of the mystery and power of a brain that is able to unlock its own secrets and understand
itself.
After all, our brain is but a computer, composed of about 86
billion neurons. The African elephant has three times as many, but we rarely
see scholarly articles published by elephants.
The secret, of course, is that we have evolved the ability
to communicate, to both exchange and record complex thoughts. And that over
time we have developed tools and technologies allowing us to delve into our
physical world, to manipulate and understand its workings, including that of
our own brain.
When a single researcher is bent on the task of fathoming
the human brain, it is not only her brain focused on the task. She is
benefiting from billions of fellow human brains that have, over many years,
built a corpus of thought and research and tools and recorded knowledge. This
is our unique human power.
Robinson Crusoe, stranded alone on his desert island, would
have little chance of understanding the operation of his own brain.
In any human endeavor, it is the multiplication effect that
makes our race so successful. Libraries full of research, universities training
new generations, clever tools and machines and sensors probing our world, computers
and networks facilitating communication, we amplify the power of our own measly
86 billion neurons.
In spite of the critical importance of this social infrastructure,
individual brilliance is still crucial, cultivated, and revered. Albert Einstein,
whose theory of ripples in the fabric of space-time was recently validated, stood
on the shoulders of Copernicus and Planck and Maxwell. It’s as if this fabric
of human knowledge and abilities forms a trampoline on which a brilliant, young,
aspiring thinker might ascend to a new insight, a breakthrough, a flash of
genius.
In this we observe the interaction and mutual
interdependence of society and the individual.
“You didn’t build that” is a meme that has pervaded our recent
politics. It is meant to diminish the significance, and hence the deserved
remuneration, of individual contribution. Liberals use it as a justification for
increasing the tax on success. Conservatives interpret it as an attack on the
value of entrepreneurs and the free market.
In truth, both have a point. Tom Brady would not be
fabulously wealthy without the social infrastructure that offers him a field of
play. But we (at least those who are fans) would be the poorer for not seeing
his brilliance on the field. Tom Brady is wealthy because we value the
entertainment he provides.
Examples abound. Steve Jobs (rest his soul), was enormously
wealthy but brought us our ubiquitous, dearly loved iPhones. Larry Page and
Sergey Brin, each multi-billionaires, founded Google, an indispensable tool to
billions of people every day. Mark Zuckerberg, another multi-billionaire,
brought us the spectacle of silly cat videos and embarrassing spring break
photos on our Facebook feeds. None of these folks “built that.” But “that”
wouldn’t have been built, in this way, at this time, without them.
More quotidian examples surround us. For government employee,
teacher, police, and fireman pension funds, those are invested in corporate
America. The success of those companies, and the CEOs who lead them, is
paramount to your retirement. Yet somehow it is fashionable to decry and punish
that success.
Just as in science, society has evolved a commercial infrastructure
upon which our entrepreneurs and business leaders create and implement their
individual visions. It is true that trucking companies couldn’t be successful
without public roads. But without trucking companies, the value of public roads
would be diminished. And it’s also true that we must all contribute to the
public fisc.
But we must never demean nor punish individual achievement,
whether an Einstein, Zuckerberg, or Brady. Individuals need society, and the
inverse is blindingly obvious. The trampoline is useless without the jumper.
