从细菌到巴赫再回来

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• In chapter 2 a question was posed and postponed: Why have there been so few famous female geniuses? Is it genes or memes or a mixture of both? Our present vantage point suggests that the answer will lie more in features of culture than in cortex—but not by supporting the discredited mantra from the 1960s: boys and girls are “biologically” the same; all differences are due to socialization and other cultural pressures. That is politically correct nonsense. Male and female brains are not exactly alike. How could they be, given the differences in paternal and maternal biological roles? There are dozens of reliably detectable differences of neuroanatomy, hormonal balance, and other physiological signs, and their genetic sources are not in doubt. Moreover, these physical differences issue in di... (查看原文)

  元非 5赞 2017-04-16 14:23:57

• So far, there is a fairly sharp boundary between machines that enhance our “Peripheral” intellectual powers (of perception, algorithmic calculation, and memory) and machines that at least purport to replace our “Central” intellectual powers of comprehension (including imagination), planning, and decision-making. Hand calculators; GPS systems; Pixar's computer graphics systems for interpolating frames, calculating shadows, adjusting textures and so forth; and PCR and CRISPR in genetics are all quite clearly on the peripheral side of the boundary, even though they accomplish tasks that required substantial expertise not so long ago. We can expect that boundary to shrink, routinizing more and more cognitive tasks, which will be fine so long as we know where the boundary currently is. The real... (查看原文)

  元非 3赞 2017-04-16 14:37:01

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