Stephen Downes

People have this metaphor of the map to understand the brain, and so they think there are 'areas' that correspond with particular sorts of knowledge. I don't think this is the case. Oh, sure, there is modularity on some very broad strokes, but get any more granular and there is no sense to the concept of a 'map' of the brain at all. Melcher notwithstanding, I think the map analogy misleads more than it illuminates.