[0239kffkk]

To me, though, a better analogy is assuming that because one has a detailed map of the sewer system of NYC, we now understand where we're going in Berlin, or Barcelona, or Vancouver, or that that level of detail is necessary to understand the economics of poverty or pollution. That wouldn't work for city planning and I don't know why people assumes it works for neural architecture either.

Similar tricks can be played with the human brain, things we have been able to do for decades, while people are undergoing brain surgery, and now later, with TMS. However, being able to elicit limb movements or bits of speech, or even emotional qualia is different from having a dynamic understanding of the brain in vivo in everyday life.

Certainly having an understanding of detailed circuitry is interesting and important, but to me there's a forest for the trees problem.