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The Accidental Mind: How Brain Evolution Has Given Us Love, Memory, Dreams, and Godx$14.00
  (26 reviews)
Best Price: $25.95 $14.00
You've probably seen it before: a human brain dramatically lit from the side, the camera circling it like a helicopter shot of Stonehenge, and a modulated baritone voice exalting the brain's elegant design in reverent tones. To which this book says: Pure nonsense. In a work at once deeply learned and wonderfully accessible, the neuroscientist David Linden counters the widespread assumption that the brain is a paragon of design--and in its place gives us a compelling explanation of how the brain's serendipitous evolution has resulted in nothing short of our humanity. A guide to the strange and often illogical world of neural function, The Accidental Mind shows how the brain is not an optimized, general-purpose problem-solving machine, but rather a weird agglomeration of ad-hoc solutions that have been piled on through millions of years of evolutionary history. Moreover, Linden tells us how the constraints of evolved brain design have ultimately led to almost every transcendent human foible: our long childhoods, our extensive memory capacity, our search for love and long-term relationships, our need to create compelling narrative, and, ultimately, the universal cultural impulse to create both religious and scientific explanations. With forays into evolutionary biology, this analysis of mental function answers some of our most common questions about how we've come to be who we are. (20070601)
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Customer Reviews
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A delightful trip through the brain
By APUOM6QG9PXCP on 2007-04-13
With his book "The Accidental Mind", David Linden has given us a wonderful tour of our own brains. He describes this organ and its many interweaving functions 'from the ground up', carefully using terms and analogies that a non-scientist would understand. Dispelling the notion that the brain is either perfect or efficient, David examines this organ as it exists in animals and humans, with the focus on the latter. We begin with basic brain chemistry and mechanisms, and then delve chapter by chapter into such fascinating topics as memory, emotions, personality, sexuality, and dreams. As a professor at Johns Hopkins University, David has access to all the latest research. He covers each subject in just enough detail while leaving out the more technical aspects. This is not another dull textbook, as David laces it with both humor and the occasional personal anecdote. Near the end, David suggests why the human mind would believe in God. He delicately handles this contentious subject by not saying whether God exists (or not). Rather, David proposes reasonably why the mind would be inclined to believe.
Common Sense
By A1OQDTWG7BJUXF on 2007-04-18
Prior to Linden's book, nothing in Evolutionary Theory could explain love, memory, dreams and our longing for God. After his book, nothing in Evolutionary Theory can explain love, memory, dreams and our longing for God.
Nicely done, accessible account of the human brain
By AQQLWCMRNDFGI on 2007-08-08
David Linden's "The Accidental Mind" is a neat little book. He has two main purposes: (a) to write a readable introduction on brain science, accessible to nonspecialists; (b) to make the case that (page 6) `. . .the brain is an inelegant and inefficient agglomeration of stuff, which nonetheless works surprisingly well." As to the first point, this volume is a far cry from the magnificent work, Michael Gazzaniga's The Cognitive Neurosciences III: Third Edition. However, if one is not well steeped in knowledge and understanding of the neurosciences, Gazzaniga's edited work is close to impenetrable. This book is well and crisply written, explaining simply how neurons work the structure of the brain, how the brain develops, and so on.
As to the second point? He asserts that, quoting Francois Jacob (Page 6), "'Evolution is a tinkerer, not an engineer." That is, evolution operates on organisms as they are and then the process of change takes advantage of the material already existent to adapt to new conditions and challenges. Thus, the human brain is mounted on older, more primitive structures, in an ill fitting complex. As he says (page 21): "The brain is built like an ice cream cone (and you are the top scoop): Through evolutionary time, as higher functions were added, a new scoop was placed on top, but the lower scoops were left largely unchanged."
Thereafter, he speaks of the structure of the brain, how the fully mature human brain develops (with both nature and nurture having roles to play), how the brain is associated with all manner of emotions, learning, religion, and so on.
The Ninth chapter has a title that speaks directly to Linden's first theme--"The Unintelligent Design of the Brain." Here, he slyly critiques advocates of the "Intelligent Design" perspective by noting that the brain is hardly an exemplar of some great design. As noted already, he sees the brain as inefficient and "jury-rigged."
This is a book that provides plenty of insight into how neuroscientists study the structure and function of the brain--and presents some of the exciting possibilities for future research.
In sum, this is a work that ought to be attended to by those interested in the brain sciences, but who cannot readily read the technical literature.
Very Interesting
By A3NOU3DNS58U67 on 2007-04-25
I recommend this book to anyone who watches a lot of Discovery Channel or Science Channel. Overall very interesting, but can get a bit tedious in the details (the only reason why I didn't give it 5 stars). Some of the experiments that Linden goes over are just amazing. Like blind people being able to detect objects using an old visual system on a subconscious level (works much like a frogs vision, good at depth and motion). He handled the religion part with extreme professionalism. I loved the last chapter explaining how creationism and intellegent design were simply not science, it was very well written with facts backing him and Linden uses IDers own words against them to make his point.
Will change the way you think about things
By A2R1IGWAP98LS on 2007-04-26
With this fun and clearly written book the author addresses a common misconception about the brain: that its design is optimal. The brain is amazing, it makes us amazing, but Linden walks us through science showing that its design is better described as haphazard. Using a computer program as a metaphor, the brain's design is not indicative of great forethought and upfront planning. Instead, it looks more like a simple program that was then adapted to be more complex again and again. The result, like simple computer programs that are slowly adapted to be more complex, is that some of the organization is unfortunate, non-optimal, and at times even a little bizarre. David Linden develops this argument with great wit, clarity and sound logic. Read this book to broaden your view of yourself and the world.
- Great story!
By A2W8SGO9SY4LD1 on 2007-05-19
This book is a good introduction to many of the things we know and don't know about how mammalian (especially human) brains work. I see it as a story, starting with some basic bio and neuro chemistry, hitting some brain architecture, and proceeding to touch on learning and memory, sleeping and dreaming, love, and even religion. The climax of the story is the "unintelligent" design of the brain and how it relates to arguments of intelligent design.
This book is fairly easy reading but is aimed at those with at lease some background in science. Prof. Linden is at the top of his game professionally and has a great sense of humor (check out the Absolut Purkinje on his web page at Johns Hopkins!). As you'd expect from a general intro, there isn't too much depth here. When you get hungry for more, The Quest for Consciousness by Christof Koch delivers the next step up in a technical overview of brain function and contains a much more extensive bibliography.
- Fascinating Brain Facts and Intriguing Hypotheses
By A24BAGOWKYIK6Z on 2007-04-26
It's rare that a brainy scientist studying something as complex as the brain can explain his field of study in a way non-scientists can even begin to understand. It's even more rare that a scientist can write a page-turner about his field of study that makes his science accessible to the average reader. But that is just what Linden has accomplished. Reading this book not only provided enough cocktail party quips to last a lifetime (did you know that the brain is built like an ice-cream cone?), it also caused me to consider dreams, memory, religion, sight and my narrative perception of the world in different and mind-blowing ways. A great book to have and to share.
- Educational and accessible
By AD54G6K55D78V on 2007-05-07
I picked up the book in the bookstore to browse through it, and just could not put it down. Linden is a first-class educator. His book describes the physical and computational architecture and development of the brain/mind with clear and memorable analogies. Personally, I enjoyed the chapter on sleep and dreaming the best, but Linden covers a lot of ground. His main point is that the brain isn't a highly-optimized computer, but instead is a layered design that keeps a lot of out-moded machinery around in the lower layers. I have read several other books on this topic (Ratey, Ramachandra, Sacks, Carter), and Linden's book seems to strike the best balance between information and entertainment. P.S. Since I'm a computer scientist, this book also gives me some hope that one day we'll mimic the brain. Since the brain is so inefficiently made, that means we can design an artificial one without all the overhead.
- For your thinking and reading friends....
By A1FZNAD6TTTW7V on 2007-05-31
I found The Accidental Mind a well written, humorous and thought-provoking introduction to neuroscience and to some profound ideas about evolution and other topics. It's the kind of book that makes you interrupt your partner's reading every five minutes with "Hey, listen to this...." If Dr. Linden lectures as entertainingly and interestingly as he writes, his classes at Johns Hopkins University must be in great demand.
- Anticlimactic, given the subtitle
By A10RQR8BVO77HS on 2008-01-30
The subtitle was the hook: "How Brain Evolution Has Given Us Love, Memory, Dreams and God." I expected a real intellectual ride on a par with "The Origins of Consciousness" or "The Social Construction of Reality," with Linden making provocative assertions with the neurology pointing the way, or better, announcing some spectacular recent finds. Though the author does cover those bases, he is much too good a scientist (read: cautious, incremental) to justify the editor's or publicist's perfunctory tagline.
No, this isn't a mind-bender for the general reader, but more like a sound, responsible textbook (or college lecture, with rock music and pop culture analogies to liven the talk) on the state of the science. What isn't mentioned in the subtitle is his best point: that evolution has given us an inefficient agglomeration of add-ons and annexes (a "kludge") rather than a streamlined brain design.
Love? Derived from the opportunism that favored lifelong reproductive human pairings. Memory? Some good points are communicated, though hardly revelatory. Dreams? Interesting and subtle functionality, though we need to know more. God? The end product of dreams and our constant creation of narratives to explain the world. The sociologists have more compelling--and focused--recent theories here.
I'm glad I read Linden's book, but I'm not sure I would have bought it without that witty pumpkin on the cover or clever subtitle. "Consciousness: A User's Guide" or "Consciousness Explained" might have been more what I was looking for.
- Great book for a novice
By A13JV9J5SNDVYK on 2007-04-30
I am not even remotedly related to this subject but I was always curious to learn more about how human brain works. This is an amazing book for someone new to the subject to start with.
- Our mental ice cream cone
By AJDYDG7YZY9QL on 2008-04-07
The greatest fear among those who reject Charles Darwin's "Dangerous Idea" is the implications the concept holds for human beings. Our brain, they often claim, demonstrates how far we are from the other animals. It must have been designed by "divine intelligence". Not so, says David Linden. Our brain is something cobbled together over millions of years, parts and functions being added over time to produce that kilogramme of matter in our heads. He likens the building-up process to a multi-scoop ice cream cone. In this finely written overview, he explains the brain's structure and functions, relating them to earlier sources with clarity and wit.
The bottom of the ice-cream cone is the brainstem, an ancient structure controlling much of the body's major systems like heartbeat and breathing. Many of the body's communication with the rest of the brain pass through this part. Above the brainstem is the cerebellum, the first "scoop". The cerebellum acts as a signal filter, inhibiting "expected" sensations like your clothing against your skin. When something detectable as not part of "normal" conditions arises, the cerebellum passes those signals to the rest of the brain. That's when the real action begins. Above the cerebellum lies the midbrain, which is the first recipient of visual and sound signals. In some animals, such as frogs, he notes, this is the primary sensory area. Our midbrain, Linden declares, is symbolic of what he calls "brain kludge". It's an archaic region retained from earlier ancestral creatures for very limited processes. Moving upward and forward we encounter two elements, the thalamus and hypothalamus, the former being a major relay station for signals within and to and from the brain. Near these two is the amygdala, the centre of fear and aggression - the "flight or fight" controller that is an obvious holdover from early times.
If there is a "human" area in our brains, it is the cortex. In dealing with its role, the author takes us through how neuronal cells are structured and operate. They are, he notes, a flawed example of "design". Brains are often compared to computers, but the network of neuronal cells is a patchwork of bad connections, leaking signals and is depressingly slow. Copper wire is several orders of magnitude better at passing information. Describing somebody as being "quick minded" reveals we don't really know what's going on in there. There are, Linden reminds us, 100 billion neurons residing in the brain, with 500 trillion synapses - the contact point for brain signals - connecting them. But the distribution is unequal with contact points ranging from 0 to 200 000. No wonder some thoughts "go astray" and "memory fails"!
Knowledge of the brain rests heavily on those who have suffered injury or lesions in particular areas. Today, these are identified by electronic scanners, but no account of the brain would be complete without the early 19th Century story of Phineas Gage. A steel rod through his skull failed to kill him, but his personality was changed forever. Linden recounts the studies initiated by this accident, and goes on to describe the roots of other behaviour traits. He discusses vision, hearing, sleep and dreaming, and, of course, sex. Studies performed on what happens in the brain during orgasm make almost hilarious reading. Even Linden is left wondering just how the subjects coped. His explanation of why humans seem to bond better than other creatures, even our primate cousins is of particular interest. Although the word "love" appears in the subtitle, there's little mention of it in the text. It's not really related to how the brain works. You are cautioned not to jump to Chapter Six before reading the introductory material.
Linden's chapter on why humans have religion is necessarily thin. Little work has been done on this topic. Even what has been done is rudimentary and sketchy. He compares some representative ideas about gods and spirits, noting that there is some uniformity among them. He dismisses any suggestion of a "god part of the brain" or genes prompting for "faith". Instead, he says, there is a tendency for the brain, seen in other mental functions such as vision, to seek "coherent, gap-free stories". The brain "fills in" when it isn't receiving continuous information. There are many forms of this "filling-in", as some patients have exhibited, which Linden refers to as "confabulation". This isn't a form of "making up" stories, since the individuals truly believe what they are saying. They simply have no way of knowing the tale isn't true. It was a surprise to this reviewer that no mention of sensory deprivation studies dealing with this topic was introduced by the author.
Finally, as all writers of science in the US seem compelled to do, Linden responds the rising challenge of "intelligent design". The simple answer is that the notion is a weak attempt to explain what is either unknown or poorly understood. Why US scientists or science journalists must descend to sparring with this elusive concept is both astonishing and worrying. Many astute thinkers and writers have demolished "ID". Why does it need yet another post-mortem? Linden does as good a job as any at demonstrating the falsity of proponents like Behe, Dembski and Johnson. In doing so, he concludes with an appeal for more work to build on what is known about the brain and its evolutionary foundation. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
- A Perspective-Changing Read about the Brain
By A28PTIF5JQADGS on 2007-07-03
Why do we sleep? What is love? What is happening when we dream? These questions seem so basic to our human experience, and yet the average person in at a complete loss to explain even the most common of our daily experiences. This is where the Accidental Mind comes in. Linden's book offers a refreshingly different perspective on the brain. After reading this book, you will have a much better understanding of how your brain shapes your experience, it's limitations, and what is going on "behind the curtain." Intelligence, gender identity, sexuality, are all covered with an eye to how these factors play out in the architecture of the brain.
This book also provides a great deal of information on the biological basis for issues that are being debated in our culture, which many people will find enlightening and necessary for making informed comments.
If you are considering picking up this book, read Chapter 7 on sleep, available for free from Linden's website:
[...]
While the book may sometimes goes into great detail on the biology, most readers will find plenty of compelling information in these pages. People who enjoy this book and are interested in some of the practical insights that new research is providing about humans, how we work, and practical advice for improving our lives should check out The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt.
Happy reading!
- A Very Refreshing Book On Brain Science
By A2EA7K5ZMWL37K on 2007-07-18
The addition of this review is to fill in one gap in particular. Dr. Linden is the first scientific author I have read in quite a while that wasn't flip with schools of thought. He has distilled research with varied hypothesis and has enough respect for his field and the reader to frankly state when "We just don't know." My only regret is that Dr. Linden didn't make this book the "larger tomb" he mentions when wrapping up the research that didn't make it into the book. Highly recommended to anyone who is mystified by belief and dreams.
- no hidden religious agenda
By A2FXSRQCPOP3G5 on 2007-11-06
I rejected this book the first few times it came up in my search results because I thought it was an "intelligent design" book. I was wrong. The author exposes the "intelligent design" motive as intellectually dishonest.
I agree with the other favorable reviews the book receives here. A nice read by a kind man.
- Entertaining?
By A2JIL28BG3NYOY on 2007-07-30
This is a great book for readers who are interested in an overview of the anatomical and physiological functions of the brain. If you have had any previous A+P, this book may give you flashbacks (and does a good job of explaining how those feelings were "created.") You may even recognise many of the examples and case studies right from classic lectures.
If you are approaching "The Accidental Mind" as pure entertainment, enjoy. If you are looking for juicier or more in depth case studies, keep browsing.
- Good user's guide to your own brain
By AKFGCNYZ45GWK on 2007-10-20
This is a smart introduction to how the brain is put together and to the recent science on how it works. Informative, lively, sometimes funny, written with the common reader in mind but without holding back on the science, it's not only a good book--it's a good read.
- Good "challenging" book
By A1RQSIDGF1RHSU on 2008-07-03
If you want to know how the human brain has evolved to bring us to who we are, this is a good book for a start. One caveat. The author, David J. Linden, Professor of Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University and one of the top brain scientists in America, says "I'll strive to make it fun, but I'm not going to "take all the science out."
What he meant by that is that he leaves lots of technical terms and information in for those who can wade through it without being put off. But most of the book can be navigated even by a person (like me) without a lot of recent scientific education. But the scientific detail makes it a tough read in places.
The chapter on "The Inelegant Design of the Brain" does a good job of convincing the reader that the brain is an hugely inefficient organ that nevertheless creates the marvelous human experience we share. It becomes obvious in "Building a Brain with Yesterday's Parts" that the brain was built over a long time, with one hunk added on top of another until there was a great deal of redundancy and lots of tissue that slows it down compared to your computer. By the time you finish "Some Assembly Required" you will probably understand how all those parts fit together to bring you your experience, and "Sensation and Emotion" will connect your five senses with the emotional interpretation that makes them important to you.
Then Dr. Linden goes on to "Learning, Memory and Human Individuality," "Love and Sex," "Sleeping and Dreaming," and a balanced explanation of "The Religious Impulse." None of this is very controversial in the way that he presents it, and it is up-to-date brain science that every educated person needs to understand.
Finally in "The Unintelligent Design of the Brain" Dr. Linden goes after the "Scientific Creationism" movement and anti-evolution thinkers who insist on "Intelligent Design" in the universe. I think he comes out well, and devastates their arguments in a dozen pages. You might not agree. Read him and see.
This is the best layman's book I've found to bring together all current knowledge of how the brain works to make us human, even though he admits he leaves out some very important areas (language, brain aging and disease, psychoactive drugs, hypnosis, and the placebo effect). You'll have to look elsewhere for information on those. Or perhaps Dr. Linden will write a second edition to fold them into his next up-to-date explanation of the brain. I hope he gets a better editor for the next edition. Some of the scientific detail he leaves in is just too cumbersome--and probably unnecessary for telling his story. Fortunately there's a great deal here that does not demand scientific training of the reader.
- Messy Sometimes But Important Summary of Scientific Basis of Psychology
By A2XQMGE2YY88DC on 2008-10-14
Because the human brain has evolved over millions of years, evolving to meet the particular and immediate challenges of its age the brain is redundant, clunky, and inefficient. It has two auditory and visual systems, modern ones tacked onto ancient ones. Neurons, the basic processors of thought, travel across leaky and slow conduits, and they fail to spark 70 percent of the time.
To compensate the brain has developed two main strategies. It compensates for its inefficiency with sheer quantity (billions of neurons), and instead of allowing genes to imprint everything about it the brain relies partly on external stimuli to grow. The brain dedicates much of itself to retaining these external stimuli, which then become memories in our system. For these millions of memories to become useful building blocks of our individuality we transform these memories into narratives and store them according to our emotional response to them -- something that is best done while sleeping, and thus we dream.
The brain must fit through the uterus so a baby's brain is very immature, and indeed the process of childhood is long and extensive, and requires co-operation between mother and father -- demands that are unique to humans in the animal kingdom. And to remedy this evolution has given us the unique human trait of love, which permits for the long-term relationships necessary to raise a child into adulthood.
That is a synopsis of Professor David Linden's book "The Accidental Mind," and this synopsis comes from a chart on page 244 of the 254-page book. Considering that David Linden relies a lot on biochemistry to make his arguments and many of his arguments are sophisticated anyway this synopsis should have come at the very beginning.
Indeed, the organization of the book is a very curious thing, and seems like what Professor Linden says about the brain: it looks like it was designed well but when you look closer it's mess.
The first five chapters are well-constructed, and advance methodically and meticulously the author's main argument: that the brain is a kludge, something that doesn't make any sense from a design and engineering perspective but somehow manages to work and adapt to new challenges anyway. What's particularly helpful in these chapters is the short summary at the end plus an explanation of how each chapter builds on each other. Then the book loses its linear narrative, and the following chapters on love and sex, sleeping and dreaming, and believing in God all seem like independent magazine articles.
But the book's strengths more than compensate for its main weakness of organization. It is a crisply-written, well-argued book that summarizes the current scientific basis behind psychology. It tells us that while we know of the existence of mirror neurons (which allow for empathy) in chimpanzees scientists, contrary to popular perception, have yet located them in humans. More important, there's really no scientific basis behind the zeal to educate young children because that's the best time to educate them. Scientists know that deprivation and poverty will impair young children's mental development but Professor Linden wonders if external stimuli to promote learning are like vitamins: you need a certain dosage but too much won't do you any good.
Most important Professor Linden reminds us that there's so much more that we don't know about the human brain, and what we actually do know is only a small fraction. Thus, it's a very important companion to popular authors such as Steven Pinker and his "How the Mind Works" because while Pinker enthusiastically theorizes on just about everything about the human condition and speculates we are close to understanding everything Professor Linden takes a much more nuanced and grounded approach. Still, sometimes, even though he admits we just don't know (for example, on the chapter why we dream) he just can't help but speculate himself. And when he talks about why humans believe in God he lacks the concrete scientific evidence of his previous chapters, and it's not all that convincing.
Well, Professor Linden is only human, and as any neurologist, psychologist, writer, or anyone for that matter can tell you, the needs to dream and to explain are uniquely human.
- Very interesting read whether or not you agree with arguement
By AKGGPYROGF0DA on 2008-01-02
The aim of this book is to show how poorly designed and inefficient the human brain is, and then to show how all these quirky things about human behavior are the result of these design flaws. Overall I think he does a really good job of doing this. There were definitely times, especially during the dreams and the religion parts, where I felt like he was going of on a tangent (definitely an interesting one, but a tangent nonetheless), but he later would tie these back to his central argument and help connect all the ideas together. Regardless of whether you agree with his overall argument you cannot help but be interested everything you learn about the human brain. This is the type of book anyone can appreciate.
Having a bachelors degree in neuroscience, this book was a breeze to read through. For those who are less experienced he lays it all out very simply. Definitely not a difficult read.
Overall I would definitely recommend this book.
- Great read on an interesting topic
By A17H8PTK3MWP0E on 2008-03-03
David J. Linden has written a highly accessible book on brain function and evolution. Taking his cue from Max Delbruck, ("Imagine that your audience has zero knowledge but infinite intelligence") Linden has managed to present the material in a way that should appeal to both a lay and an academic readership.
The book can be summarized as follows:
1) Evolution is a tinkerer, not an engineer. The brain's design is inelegant because the brain is never re-designed from the bottom-up - it is an anachronistic contraption in which the more recent phylogenetic acquisitions are layered on top of ancient ones.
2) The brain's control systems (e.g., the cerebellar comparator mechanism which subtracts expected sensorimotor sensations from actually perceived sensations) are permanently on - even if their `ON' condition is maladaptive in a given situation.
3) The brain's component parts (the neurons) are sub-optimal processors which have not changed much since they first evolved (e.g., they are leaky electrical conductors, they are metabolically inefficient, they have short signaling ranges). Therefore, in order to achieve the sorts of computational complexity of which human beings are capable, the neurons need to come in large numbers and to be patterned in the appropriate ways (on average, the human brain contains about a 100 billion neurons and 500 trillion synaptic connections).
Linden then follows the implications of these three guiding principles. For instance, it follows from Principle 3 that the human genome cannot possibly specify the brain's intricate wiring diagram. Instead the genome specifies only a rough-and-ready kind of brain map and enables experience to modify the fine structure. The same cellular and molecular mechanisms are co-opted for feats of learning and memory.
For a reader unfamiliar with the basics of brain function this book can serve as an excellent primer as it reviews the fundamentals of neural structure, function and neuroembryogenesis in a very approachable and light style. More sophisticated readers may appreciate some of the arcane facts that Linden mentions in the book, the way that he synthesizes the available data, as well as the way in which he writes about some speculative topics (the brain bases of the religious impulse). All in all, a rather engaging little book.
- Great intro to neuroscience for a layperson
By A28TX9INAFS25O on 2008-01-18
This book is a great intro. At times (especially the first few chapters) the science if fairly dense. But the science lays a good foundation for the more qualitative chapters later on.
- Entertaining Overview of the Brain
By A39EU3BMNEICN3 on 2008-07-04
A fun dip into various parts of the brain. The topics range from the chemistry of dendrite/axon interaction to higher level concepts like love and religion.
An interesting read.
- How it Works
By A25FS3K7IZNX4Q on 2008-01-04
Ever wonder what neurotransmitters are transmitting? Curious about how memory, senses, dreams and emotions interact? All this, and more, are technically and playfully explained by Dr. Linden in a very readable and understandable fashion. How the brain works is wonderfully complex, yet the author presents its basic functions in a simple, straight-forward and humorous progression.
But he veers off course when he attempts to explain why the brain works as it does. He disparages the brain as a kludge, "an agglomeration of ad hoc solutions that have been piled on through millions of years of evolutionary history." That is a logical conclusion if your starting point is based solely on atheistic evolution.
Yet, suppose the brain's designer intended some of the features the author finds so amusing. Yes, copper is a better conductor for electrical current than our neurons, but it also generates substantially more heat. Yes, there is an incredible amount of duplication in the brain's structure - which also provides redundant, back-up capacity. Yes, the religious impulse is universal - and the search for meaning in life is left wanting if we accept that it evolved merely to fill in the gaps from our senses.
Perhaps the question of "why" is best left to philosophers and theologians, and not scientists. After all, science starts with what is observable, and Dr. Linden readily admits that our brains can only see and sense just a thin slice of the total reality in which we exist. Fortunately, the author's self-described speculation does not greatly detract from the instructive and interesting explanation of "how" the brain works.
- Fun reading
By A18EJT8AVQT4A5 on 2008-03-27
The Accidental Mind is a very interesting book with a lot of information on why we behave the way we do. It explains how the brain evolved and how genetics, the brain's structure and the way the brain works, affects our behavior. Kind of like Matt Ridley's Nature via Nurture only not solely focused on genetics. It has fun info (not as much as nature via Nurture) and his explanations are very clear. I enjoyed the book. The only thing I didn't like is a quasi religious insistence on the fact thar the brain's less than perfect evolution and functioning is proof positive of there being no God. This makes the book seem biased. Trying to convince people of the existence or lack of thereof of God is futile, and in my opinion, weakens the book. People either have faith and believe God is omnipotent, and thus could choose any way to brings human to our current state of development (including random evolution), or they don't and won't be convinced by the intelligent design advocates or creationists, any more than Theists reading Linden's book will be convinced by his arguments.
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