Big brain : the future of human intelligence

1 Big Brains, Bigger Brains 1 Who were the Boskops? Are big brains better? Is language special? Were Boskops smarter? Where did they go? Introduction 1 Biggest Brain 3 Are Bigger Brains Better? 5 Brain and Language 7 Were Boskops Smarter? 8 Why Haven’t We All Heard of Boskops? 10 Outline of the Book 11 2 The Mind in the Machine 17 How can brains be understood computationally? What are the differences between brains and computers? Can we make computers like brains? Learning Network Codes 18 Brain Circuits vs. Computer Circuits 23 The Brain of John Von Neumann 25 3 Genes Build Brains 33 How did we evolve? How does evolution act on genes? How do genetic rules and modules constrain evolutionary variation? How Much Variation Can Occur? 36 Blueprint Systems 38 Bundling Genes 40 Variation Is Random, but It Is Constrained 44 4 Brains Arrive 51 What is the machinery of brains? Where did brains begin? How did brains change as they expanded? First Brains 52 Brain Expansion 58 5 The Brains of Mammals 63 What are cortical circuits and how are they different from older circuits? How do cortical connections change during learning? Neurons and Networks 65 Learning 70 6 From Olfaction to Cognition 73 What are the other primary brain circuits? How do they and the cortex interact? From Cortex to Behavior 80 Neocortex 84 7 The Thinking Brain 89 How does brain structure change with size? How does the expanded association cortex take control? Extending Thinking over Time 93 The Cortex Takes Charge 96 8 The Tools of Thought 99 What primary processes emerge from mammalian brain operation? How can we understand these processes as mental steps? What do these mechanisms say about the way we think? What new abilities arise as brains grow? Feedback and Hierarchies of Cortical Circuits 99 Sequences 106 What One Brain Area Tells Another Brain Area 107 What’s in an Image? 108 Putting It Together: From Generalists to Specialists 109 Memory Construction 110 Building High-level Cognition 113 Libraries and Labyrinths 114 Grammars of the Brain 116 9 From Brain Differences to Individual Differences 119 How do individuals’ brains differ from each other? What brain differences show up as behavioral differences? How do brains change with experience? Brain Paths 122 Brain Tracts and Differential Abilities 125 Nature and Nurture 127 10 What’s in a Species? 129 How do individual members of different species differ? What are separate and interbreeding gene pools? How do these give rise to the notion of races? Definitions 131 Fallacies of the Notion of Race 132 Races Versus Gene Pools 135 11 The Origins of Big Brains 139 How do brains change as they grow? What were the brains of our early ancestors like? What adaptations may have affected the path of brain evolution? Brain Size in the Primates 141 Brain Size in the Family of Man 145 Big Babies 154 On Intelligence 157 12 Giant Brains 161 Who were the Boskops? How were they discovered, and how were they forgotten? The Man of the Future 162 How Giant Brains Were Forgotten 165 Inside the Giant Brain 171 Giant Brains and Intelligence 175 13 All but Human 179 What is shared in big brains? What is unique about human brains? Might other big-brained creatures have intelligence and language? On Science 179 Differences 182 From Quantity to Quality 189 From Brain Advances to Cognitive Advances 191 From Cognition to Language 193 Learning Curve 195 From Speaking to Writing 197 14 More than Human 201 What is it like to have a big brain? How do our brains render us human, and how might out brains be changed in the future? Brain and Superbrain 201 New Paths, New Humans 204 The Final Path to Humans 205 Inconstant Brain 209 Next Steps 211 Coda 214 Appendix 217 Acknowledgments 233 Bibliography 235 Index 255