Herculean

...describes the work of the brain learning about itself

From webvision.med.utah.edu:

Our attempt to understand the visual pathways is very much like approaching a machine about which we know nothing but its basic functions. By way of analogy, we all know how to operate a car (more or less) and recognize its basic function, to get us from one place to another. Now let us assume that we knew absolutely nothing but this and, for some reason, decided we should learn every detail of the cars inner workings. We might start by trying to figure out the parts of the car devoted to this central function and those that are not. We remove the bumper, horn, AC, and windshields and find the car still runs splendidly. We remove small parts of the engine, piece by piece until the car no longer starts, analogous to the lesion studies in the brain. Slowly we begin to understand what parts of the car (brain) are involved in locomotion (vision). In vision research we are very much at this stage of the game, still wanting to know what each part actually does, when it does it, and how all the individual parts act in concert. It is the hope of many researchers, myself included, that a careful investigation into the structure and function of the visual pathways using chemical, electrophysiological, genetic, and behavioural approaches will culminate in a true understanding of how the brain provides us with this most crucial of sensory capabilities, vision.

Written by a scientist interested in the visual system, this analogy interests me because of its relevance not only to human vision, but to the brain's overall capacity. I mean, what can't the brain do?