Notes on 《How the Mind Works》Ch.3 —— Revenge of Nerds

In this chapter, Steven mainly explains how the human mind evolve over eons in the light of natural selection and distinguishs the evolutionary theory from other plausible theories.

Evolution is about ends, not means; Intelligence isn't for every species because:

• organisms don't evolve toward every imaginable advantage.
• An organism that devotes some of its matter and energy to one organ must take it away from another.
• Organs evolve only when their benefits outweigh their costs.

Based on this premise, it explains why some creatures do not evolve a humanlike brain:

1. the brain is bukly, which makes people more vulnerable.
2. the brain needs energy. 2% weighted brain need to consume 20% energy and nutrients.
   
3. the brain take time to learn to use.
4. simple tasks can be slow.
   

Rickard Dawkins's evolutionary theory v.s Directed/Adaptive mutation:

• mutations are indifferent overall to the benefits they confer on the organism. (a cornerstone of the scientific worldview)
  
• mutations can not respond to organisms' needs in general.
  

The Baldwin effect: learning can guide evolution. The sustained behavior of a species or group can shape the evolution of that species.

Four traits make our ancestors easier to evolve better powers of causal reasoning:

1. vision: depth perception and color vision together have pushed the primate brain into splitting the flow of visual information into two streams: a "what" system, for objects and their shapes and compositions, and a "where" system, for their locations and motions. The human mind grasps the world—even the most abstract, ethereal concepts—as a space filled with movable things and stuff.
2. group living:
   
1. several advantages:
• protect themselves better
  
• foraging efficiency
• the benefit of the knowledge and the benefit of whatever it can get in trade for the knowledge.
2. Group living could have set the stage for the evolution of humanlike intelligence in two ways:
1. the value of having better information is multiplied
2. The other way in which a group can be a crucible of intelligence is that group living itself poses new cognitive challenges.
3. the hand and fully upright posture
4. hunting: provides sporadic packages of concentrated nutrients so that we could afford our expensive brains, can be traded for other resouces.