Stephen Pinker - how the brain works. how the brain works pinker how the brain works download fb2

The book by Steven Pinker, an eminent scientist specializing in experimental psychology and cognitive sciences, examines in a fascinating and accessible form what factors affect the human mind, how the intelligence of an adult is formed and how it differs from children's, how human thinking differs from the thinking of animals in general and primates in particular, features of artificial intelligence.
Pinker supports the idea of ​​a complex human nature, consisting of many adaptive abilities of the mind. He believes that the human mind works in part through combinatorial symbol manipulation.

Reverse engineering of the soul.
The complex organization of thought is the central theme of this book. Its main idea can be expressed as follows: thinking is a system of calculation organs formed as a result of natural selection to solve various problems that our ancestors faced in the process of obtaining food; in particular, tasks related to understanding the essence of objects, animals, plants and other people and learning how to use them for their own purposes. Several statements can be deduced from this brief summary. Thinking is the result of brain activity; more precisely, the brain processes information, and thinking is a kind of computational process. Thinking includes a number of modules, that is, organs of thinking; each of them is distinguished by a unique organization that makes him an expert in one area of ​​interaction with the world. The basic logic of the modules activity is predetermined by our genetic setting. The principles of their work have been shaped by natural selection so that people can solve the problems that our ancestors faced, the predominant part of our evolutionary history was engaged in hunting and gathering. The various problems that our ancestors solved were intermediate tasks of one big problem facing our genes: to maximize the number of copies of a species that can survive to the next generation.

Content.
Preface.
Standard equipment.
How to make a robot.
Reverse engineering of the soul.
psychological correctness.
Thinking machines.
In search of signs of intelligent life in the universe.
Natural Computing.
current champion.
Will machines replace us?
Connectoplasm.
Aladdin's lamp.
Revenge of the wise men.
Tighten your twists!
Life designer.
Blind programmer.
instinct and intellect.
cognitive niche.
Why us?
Our relatives from the Stone Age.
What's next?
Mind's eye.
Deep gaze.
Light, shadow and form.
Two and a half dimensions.
Reference systems.
Cookies in the form of animals.
Just imagine!
Good ideas.
Ecological intelligence.
Boxes.
Mandatory program.
Trivium.
metaphorical thinking.
Eureka!
Hot heads.
All-encompassing passion.
Feeling machines.
Suburban savannah.
Food for thought.
The smell of fear.
The treadmill of happiness.
Sirens singing.
You and I.
Doomsday Machine.
Trapped in love.
Community of feelings.
Self-deception.
Family values.
Relatives.
Fathers and Sons.
Brothers and sisters.
Men and women.
Husbands and wives.
Rivals.
Friends and acquaintances.
Allies and Enemies.
Humanity.
Meaning of life.
Arts and entertainment.
What's so funny?
Inquisitive minds in search of the unattainable.
Notes.
Bibliography.
Copyright holders of media materials.

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Stephen Pinker

How the brain works

HOW THE MIND WORKS

Foreword

Any book with such a title - "How the Brain Works" - must necessarily begin with an explanation, and I will start with two at once. First, we don’t know anything about how the brain works—we don’t know a hundredth of what we know about how the body works, and certainly not enough of our knowledge to create a utopia or cure misfortune. Why, then, did I choose such an ambitious name? The linguist Noam Chomsky once said that our ignorance can be divided into problems and mysteries. If we encounter a problem, we may not know the solution, but we have intuitions, incremental knowledge, and at least a rough idea of ​​what we are looking for. But when we are faced with a mystery, we can only look at it in amazement and bewilderment, not even imagining what its explanation might be. I wrote this book because dozens of mysteries of our thinking, from mental images to romantic love, have recently been relegated to the category of problems (although it must be said that some mysteries have remained mysteries!). It is likely that every one of the ideas in this book will be wrong, but this will be progress, because our old ideas were too commonplace to be wrong. Secondly, the little that we still know about the work of our brain was not discovered by me. Few of the ideas in this book are mine. From a range of disciplines, I have selected theories that I feel give us a new way of understanding our thoughts and feelings; theories that correspond to the facts, allow the prediction of new facts and at the same time are consistent in content and style of presentation. My goal was to weave these theories into a single canvas, using two larger theories (also not mine): the computational theory of consciousness and the theory of natural selection of replicators.

The first chapter presents the big picture: I write that the mind is a system of computational organs created by natural selection to solve the problems faced by our forager and hunter ancestors. Each of these two most important ideas - computation and evolution - is then devoted to a separate chapter. I discuss in detail the key abilities of thinking in the chapters on perception, logical reasoning, emotions, and social relationships (such as family, love, rivalry, friendship, friendship, acquaintance, alliance, enmity). The final chapter deals with such lofty matters as art, music, literature, humour, religion and philosophy. There is no separate chapter on language: I deal with this topic in detail in my previous book, Language as Instinct.

This book is for anyone who is interested in how thinking works. I wrote it not only for professors and students; however, the so-called popularization of science was not my only goal either. I hope that the general picture of thinking and the role it plays in human life will be useful both to scientists and to a wide range of readers. Seen from this point of view, the difference between the specialist and the uninitiated does not matter much, because in our time, we specialists, in most of our own fields - not to mention neighboring ones - turn out to be no stronger than mere mortals. I am not doing an exhaustive review of all the literature and I am not giving the opinions of all parties on a particular issue, because otherwise the book would be very difficult to read - what is there, it would be difficult to move it from its place. I draw my conclusions on the basis of an assessment of the similarity of data obtained in different scientific fields and by different methods; I provide many links so that readers can refer to the original sources.

I am indebted intellectually to many of my teachers, students and colleagues, but most of all to John Tooby and Leda Cosmides. They are the ones who brought about the synthesis of evolution and psychology that made this book possible, and they are responsible for many of the theories I present here (and many of the best jokes). Through their invitation to spend a year as a fellow at the Center for Evolutionary Psychology at the University of California at Santa Barbara, I received an ideal opportunity to think and write, as well as their invaluable friendship and advice.

I am deeply indebted to Michael Gazzaniga, Markus Houser, David Kemmerer, Gary Marcus, John Tooby, and Margot Wilson for reading my entire manuscript and for their invaluable advice and support. Other colleagues also made many useful comments on chapters in their areas of expertise: Edward Adellson, Barton Anderson, Simon Baron-Cohen, Ned Block, Paul Bloom, David Brainerd, David Bass, John Constable, Leda Cosmides, Helena Cronin, Dan Dennett, David Epstein, Alan Friedland, Gerd Gigerenzer, Judith Harris, Richard Held, Ray Jackendoff, Alex Kachelnik, Steven Kosslin, Jack Loomis, Charles Oman, Bernard Sherman, Paul Smolensky, Elizabeth Dealke, Frank Sulloway, Donald Simons and Michael Tarr . Many others answered questions and made valuable suggestions - including Robert Boyd, Donald Brown, Napoleon Chagnon, Martin Daly, Richard Dawkins, Robert Hadley, James Hillenbrand, Don Hoffman, Kelly Olgwyn Jaakola, Timothy Ketelaar, Robert Kurzban, Dan Montello, Alex Pentland, Roslyn Pinker, Robert Provine, Whitman Richards, Daniel Schacter, Devendra Singh, Pawan Sinha, Christopher Tyler, Jeremy Wolf and Robert Wright.

This book is the fruit of my being in the inspiring atmosphere of two institutions: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, Santa Barbara. Special thanks go to Emilio Bizzi (MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Science) for allowing me to take a sabbatical, and to Loy Lightle and Aaron Ettenberg (Psychology Department), Patricia Clancy and Marianne Mithun (UC Santa Barbara Department of Linguistics) for inviting me to work as a freelance research fellow in their departments.

Patricia Claffey at MIT's Brain and Cognitive Science Library knows it all—or at least knows where to find it, which is basically the same thing. I am grateful to her for the tireless perseverance with which she finds even the most obscure document - and quickly and without losing her complacency. Eleanor Bonsent, my secretary, has helped me professionally and optimistically with myriad issues. Thanks also to Marianne Taber, Sabrina Detmar, and Jennifer Riddell of the MIT Center for the Visual Arts.

My editors, Drake McFeely (Norton), Howard Boyer (now at UCLA), Stefan McGrath (Penguin), and Ravi Mirchandani (now at Orion) throughout my tenure helped me with professional advice and care. I am also indebted to my agents, John Brockman and Katinka Matson, for all they have done for me and for their interest in non-fiction. Special thanks to Katya Rice, who has worked with me on four books (for fourteen years). Thanks to her analytical mind and professional approach, my books have improved, and I have learned a lot about style and clarity of presentation. I express my heartfelt gratitude for the support and helpful suggestions to my entire family: Harry, Roslyn, Robert and Susan Pinker, Martin, Eve, Carl and Eric Budman, Saroy Subbia and Stan Adams. Thanks also to Windsor, Wilfred and Fiona.

My deepest gratitude goes to my wife, Ilavenil Subbia, for the sketches of the drawings, invaluable comments on the manuscript, countless advice, support, kindness, and participation in this endeavor. I dedicate this book to her with love and gratitude.

My thinking and language research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grant HD18381), the National Science Foundation (grants 82-09540, 85-18774, and 91-09766), and the McDonnell-Pugh Center for Cognitive Neurosciences (MIT).

1. Standard equipment

Why are there so many robots in literature and none in real life? For example, I would pay a lot of money for a robot that would clean the dishes for me or perform simple tasks. But in this century I am unlikely to have such an opportunity, and maybe not in the next either. Of course, there are robots that perform tasks like welding or painting on an assembly line, and robots that drive around the corridors of laboratories; but I do not mean them, but such machines that can walk, talk, see and think - and often even better than the people who created them. In 1920, Karel Capek used the word "robot" for the first time in his play "R. W. R.", after which the authors began to invent their own robots one after another: Speedy, Cutie and Dave appeared from I, Robot by Isaac Asimov, Robbie from the Forbidden Planet, a waving tin can from Lost in Space, far from Doctor Who, robot housekeeper Rosie from The Jetsons, Nomad from Star Trek, Hymie from Get Smart, the indifferent butlers and quarreling clothes salesmen from Sleeper, R2-D2 and C-ZRO from " Star Wars, Terminator from the film of the same name, Lieutenant Commander Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, and witty film critics from Mystery Theater 3000.

The book HOW THE BRAIN WORKS pdf by Steven Pinker, an outstanding scientist specializing in experimental psychology and cognitive sciences, examines in a fascinating and accessible form what factors affect the human mind, how the intelligence of an adult is formed and how it differs from a child's, how human thinking differs from thinking of animals in general and primates in particular, features of artificial intelligence.

Pinker supports the idea of ​​a complex human nature, consisting of many adaptive abilities of the mind. He believes that the human mind works in part through combinatorial symbol manipulation.

Any book with such a title - "How the Brain Works" - must certainly begin with an explanation, and I will start with two at once. First, we know nothing about how the brain works - we do not know even a hundredth of what we know about the work of the body, and even more so our knowledge is not enough to create a utopia or cure misfortune. Why, then, did I choose such an ambitious name? The linguist Noam Chomsky once said that our ignorance can be divided into problems and mysteries.

If we encounter a problem, we may not know the solution, but we have intuitions, incremental knowledge, and at least a rough idea of ​​what we are looking for. But when we are faced with a mystery, we can only look at it in amazement and bewilderment, not even imagining what its explanation might be. I wrote this book because dozens of mysteries of our thinking - from mental images to romantic love - have recently been relegated to the category of problems (although it must be said that some mysteries remain secrets!).

It is likely that every one of the ideas in this book will be wrong, but this will be progress, because our old ideas were too commonplace to be wrong. Secondly, the little that we still know about the work of our brain was not discovered by me. Few of the ideas in this book are mine. From a range of disciplines, I have selected theories that I feel give us a new way of understanding our thoughts and feelings; theories that correspond to the facts, allow the prediction of new facts and at the same time are consistent in content and style of presentation.

My goal was to weave these theories into a single canvas, using two larger theories (also not mine): the computational theory of consciousness and the theory of natural selection of replicators ....

Foreword
Standard equipment

• How to make a robot
• Reverse engineering of the soul
• Psychological correctness
• thinking machines
• Looking for signs of intelligent life in the universe
• natural computing
• current champion
• Will machines replace us?
• connectoplasma
• Aladdin's lamp
• Revenge of the nerds
• Tighten your twists!
• life designer
• Blind programmer
• instinct and intellect
• cognitive niche
• Why us?
• Our relatives from the Stone Age
• What's next?
• mind's eye
• Deep gaze
• Light, shadow and form
• two and a half dimensions
• reference systems
• Animal shaped cookies
• Just imagine!
• good ideas
• Environmental intelligence
• boxes
• Required Program
• Trivium
• Metaphorical thinking
• Eureka!
• Hot heads
• All-encompassing passion
• sentient machines
• suburban savannah
• Food for thought
• The smell of fear
• Happiness treadmill
• Sirens singing
• You and I
• doomsday machine
• Trapped in love
• Community of Feelings
• self-deception
• Family values
• Relatives
• Fathers and Sons
• Brothers and sisters
• Men and women
• Husbands and wives
• Rivals
• Friends and acquaintances
• Allies and Enemies
• Humanity
• Meaning of life
• Arts and Entertainment
• What's so funny?
• Inquisitive minds in search of the unattainable

Notes
Bibliography
Copyright holders of media materials