Metaphor in various images and imaginings of the brain. As Michael Shermer writes in “Five Ways Brain Scans Mislead Us” (Scientific American, Oct 1, 2008), “The brain has been thought of as a hydraulic machine (18th century), a mechanical calculator (19th century), and an electronic computer (20th century). Scientists often use metaphors such as these as aids in understanding and explaining complex processes, but this practice necessarily oversimplifies the intricate and subtle realities of the physical world. As it turns out, the role of those blobs of color that we see in brain images is not as clear-cut as we have been led to believe.”