Steven Pinker 1of3: The computational theory of mind
Steven Pinker on the computational theory of mind and evolutionary psychology. Our mental faculties assume a world like that of our ancestors. Pinker describes some of the tricks our minds do, which helped us in the natural world, but can lead to maladaptive behaviour in the modern world. From a conference in 1998 called Der Digitale Planet (The Digital Planet, I guess), which also included Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Jared Diamond and Douglas Adams. Links follow: Douglas Adams: www.youtube.com Richard Dawkins: www.youtube.com Daniel Dennett: www.youtube.com Jared Diamond: www.youtube.com Found here (at the bottom): www.reitstoen.com Direct link to video (real media): www.web-for-vision.com
Children, play nice or play elsewhere. You’re scaring the clever people away.
It’s okay that you’re gay.
i think this is very likely to be quote-mined heavily by creationists judging from the over use of the word engineering.
agree, zoaguyver. i mean really, did this guy not think for a second about what he was saying? ‘engineering excellence of the mind’ (!?) something engineered requires an engineer, definitive fact.
i cant see why he would choose such wording without having a really bad grasp of language or being a creationist (or any term you like for anyone above agnostic on the ‘more than there is’ belief scale. that said though, i know some agnostics that hold unevidenced, wish thinking type ‘beliefs’).
Lust (or what most people prefer to call Love) and it’s consequnces (offspring) is what drove the development of the human brain and just about all of it’s functions. So you cannot say the emotion of Love (or what I like to call Lust) is a byproduct of the brain’s true function (It is its sole function. Everything the brain does is tied into attracting and maintaining a mate). The two are inextricably tied together; one (Lust) causing the other (sophisticated functions of the brain).
How Sexual Selection shaped the mind. OKAY, my edcated nig, uh, excuse me my educated brotha. (You’d think The Mating Mind was the only evolutionary book I’d ever read in my life, huh.) HAHA
The mind is not a computer or a Swiss Army Knife or any other lame analogy similar to those that has been used to describe it.
Forgive me, WHAT I’VE WRITTEN IS TOO SIMPLISTIC AND INACCURATE.
Many of the human mind’s adaptations evolved through Natural Selection (what would help us survive).
I SLEPT AT ANOTHER HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS, Y’ALL.
EXCUSE ME, a good proprotion can be credited to SEXUAL SELECTION. Forgive me, Mr. Riddley.
I think it’s culturally biased to say the idea of eating worms is disgusting.
ugh…..please….go talk to wj freeman, pinker.
Don’t worry son, when you hit 50 you will find another use for your brain.
It’s not just my brain, it’s all ofour brains. And it’s n ot just at this age, it’s at every age of our lives. You’re too unintelligent and uneducated to comprehend this. But keep reading my blogs and you might get an idea. And don’t refer to me as son.
@ PeeGeeBeeDee on the issue of lust shaping the evolution of the brain
I think you might be implicitly attaching a little too much importance to the adaptive importance of lust.
@PeeGeeBeeDee #2
To be clear on my last comment, I mean to say that there are other important factors which have influenced the way the brain is today. Of these we can count the hunger instinct, the innate like of sugars and fats, predator avoidance mechanism, etc.
Of course this does make invalid the fact that lust is an important factor, I simply wanted to put it into perspective.
Cheers.
Yeah, survival and reproduction created the human mind. I gave you that somewhere a few posts below. I was just making the point that lust (reproduction) rather than survival was an even more important factor in the shaping of the mind.
So, no, lust is still an important factor. In fact, many of the brains modules evolved due to lust (the language module being one).
I’m not being implicit. I’m explicitly attaching a lot of importance to it. Without lust, morality wouln’t have become adaptive, language wouldn’t have become adaptive, love wouldn’t have become adaptive, etc. I’m not looking at lust as being just one aspect of the brain, I’m looking at it as being the main driver of the brain, highly connected to the rest of these modules (adaptations).
I’m lying. I was using “love” in the marriage sense, above. Familial love isn’t a product of lust, but of survival.
I’m not looking at your girl. NO, Natalie Thiem, I wasn’t looking at you when you were dressed like Barney (the dress that didn’t fit you right, with the fat, pasty legs) or in the Laker’s Jersey with your small titties showing through. Tell The Wiffle and Whiteboy that I wasn’t looking at you, PLEASE.)
Because I’m a daughter. OKAY?
well i notice i massive hole in this guys little speech…it doesn’t even begin to explain our amazing capacity for imagination…or intuition for that matter.
Why the fuck is the audience laughing? Stfu and let him speak!
@Tartersauce101
I would seriously recommend reading How the Mind Works by him. I’m almost done with it and it’s extremely illuminating.
because he’s funny (intentionally) and people laugh when people make good jokes (and sometimes when they are not so good just to be polite)
…the eye is a system that SEEMS to be designed for clear image formation…they dislike that the eye seems so designed and coherent.
Life in a modern society is based on lying, and society demands of us that we also take part in the lying. In order to survive in the modern world, you need to constantly repeat the lies that are told you and also also to lie to yourself so that you, too, believe in the lies. You need to lie both to other people and to yourself. This is so that you will be able to cope mentally with the nagging voice in the back of your mind that says, This is not the way we are supposed to live.
Thank you so much for this video, it’s just what I was looking for.