but if you yourself are wanting to hear them, then have them tie you hand and foot on the fast ship, standing upright against the mast with the ropes’ ends lashed around it, so that you can have joy in hearing the song of the Sirens; but if you supplicate your men and implore them to set you free, then they must tie you fast with even more lashings. Musical instruments are neat examples of black boxes, but precisely the same argument can also be made for any "organism" black box. But the brain is more interesting than a musical instrument in at least one aspect: oftentimes, the inputs will change the structure of the brain, possibly forever.