Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind [Hardcover]

 

 

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"If it works, don't fix it!", runs the old adage. Any engineer will tell you, however, that this is false confidence. What works today may not work tomorrow when conditions change. Animal brains worked for many millions of years. Then Homo sapiens arose somewhere in Africa with an enlarged, busy brain. Combined with walking and handiness, that brain accomplished - and still accomplishes - wondrous things. Until you wonder where you left your car keys. Gary Marcus, in this fluidly written review, backed by a wealth of references, explains how the workings of our brain have been built up over time, with bits added or enhanced through the ages. It makes us a unique species, but it's anything but a fine design. Instead it's what engineers call a "kluge" - an inelegant, marginally efficient product of evolutionary bits cobbled together well enough to get the job done.

Using the fact of our brains having an evolutionary foundation, Marcus shows how Shakespeare's and the Bible's depictions of the brain are flawed. We have poor, erratic memories, we make irrational decisions, and we'll believe things that are patently untrue - sometimes with real tenacity. Our brains are built up from very ancient structures, probably using the same processes, with added complexity developing over time ["This worked last time, but it's not working now. Cobble something up to fix it."]. Knowing that readers might be overwhelmed with data overload [our memories can't handle it!], the author focusses on a half-dozen aspects of brain "design" demonstrating the positive features and the shortfalls. Memory, Belief, Choice, Language, Pleasure and "Things Fall Apart" - distractions. In each case, he explains how the system is usually depicted, what might be the ideal process, and how it actually works.

The opening segment on Memory lays the groundwork for the entire book. "If evolution is so good at making things work well, why is our memory so hit and miss?" Marcus compares human memory with computer memory. Nothing is lost on the computer's disk and any stored information can be retrieved. It was clearly "designed" for that task. Human memory, on the other hand, lacks access, lacks specificity, lacks reliability. We can retrieve old memories, but can't recall what we had for dinner yesterday. Nor can we assume that old memory, which seems so vivid, is valid. Marcus describes computer memory as "postal code" memory due to the system's design in making an "address book" used to find data. Human memory, along with that of other animals, is "contextual" - recollection comes within a frame of reference. That might be good or bad, depending on the circumstances, but it's hardly reliable or consistent.

The author's use of comparison in memory is followed by similar scenarios in the other sections. Language is particularly vague and imprecise, why does each language have its own version of the sound of a dog's bark. Yet, our brains allow us to work out meaning in contextual ways. Choice seems to be one of the most irregular mechanisms in our brains, since we continue to avoid shifting from decisions resulting in long-term benefits for short-term gains. Those limited scope decisions likely have links with the brain's pleasure centres, hence the current rise in addictions - even video games take time better spent at exercise or learning.

The conclusion of this book may come as a surprise. The unthinking may tend to see this section as one of those "self-help" manuals so common today [and which are designed to overcome the "kluge" aspects of our minds]. Here, Marcus is able to line out a set of recommendations for improving how we use our brains. He recognises that the idea of the human brain as a kluge will find little appeal with some people. That's a prejudice that must be overcome. Evolution, he reminds us, has produced things of tremendous beauty. If the brain falls short, it has the capacity to examine imperfection and understand it. More importantly, those imperfections of the brain can be addressed. Who is capable of that? You are. Don't miss this book. It's about you. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

In this book, Gary Marcus, a professor of psychology at NYU, likens the human brain to what engineers call a KLUGE, "a clumsy or inelegant - but surprisingly effective - solution to a problem". However a KLUGE "is rarely reliable" and "they are designed for the moment not a lifetime." The use of the word KLUGE is of course really just a hook to grab the attention of potential readers and give a catchy name to a hypothesis which he rationalizes as being a case for what he perceives to be imperfections in the human brain. As an owner of one of these brains I must protest this unfair characterization of it being clumsy and inelegant.

The book begins as an interesting and thought provoking exploration of what the author sees as the shortcomings in the brain's ability to reason and use logic. He makes his case with examples of the many ways humans fail to make what he deems should be rational decisions. Unfortunately the standard by which he makes his judgments, that the brain should be a purely reasoning and logical thing with the "addressable memory" of computers, and precise language, is really only a creation of his imagination and definitely not something that would work in a world filled with other irrational humans, living in a heuristic and chance determined universe in which nothing can be ever be one hundred percent certain except death. (Even the rich can avoid taxes.)

In a chapter on language he goes on a great length discussing how imperfect and vague our language is compared to computer "language", but neglects to consider how even computer languages have evolved, some of which have even become virtually extinct, He also fails to consider how computer programs written in these languages, themselves need to be translated into binary code so the computer can "understand" them, with the result that the programs are even greater examples of KLUGES than the human brain ever will be. Microsoft Windows programs are classic illustrations of this.

As the philosopher Sextus once wrote, "reason is a trickster" and unfortunately the author being a young fellow sequestered in a University environment seems to have been fooled into believing that reason and logic should be the gold standard for human behaviour that will somehow lead mankind to higher levels of knowledge and progress. He gives me the impression that he believes that man has some purpose and goals beyond his evolutionary imperatives. This is a very erroneous assumption. E. O. Wilson, who I consider to be one of the Saints of science, sums up this problem quite well in his book "On Human Nature".

" No species, ours included possesses a purpose beyond the imperatives created by its genetic history ...The human mind is constructed in a way that locks it inside this fundamental constraint and forces it to make choices with a purely biological instrument. The brain exists because it promotes the survival and multiplication of the genes that direct its assembly...The human mind is a device for survival and reproduction and reason is just one of its various techniques."

In a chapter discussing mental illness, he regards mental disorders as evolutionary glitches. Apparently he thinks evolution has made some mistakes in trying to achieve its ultimate goal of the creation of the perfect human. Assuming there is such a thing as an average "normal" human on the continuum of our behaviour, it seems to me that evolution has also produced some very impressive results called genius at the top end of the scale as well which could be seen as forms as mental illness. The economist Kenneth Boulding noted in his book "The Image":

"Man's image is also characterized by a phenomenal capacity for internal growth and development, quite independent of messages received from the outside. So great is this capacity indeed, that it can easily become pathological. In the extreme form we see the schizophrenic who builds up a whole imaginary universe out of the proliferation of his own images without regard to any contradictory messages which may come from outside. ... It is this property of the "imagination" however, which is also responsible for the greatest achievements of man."

Much of what passes for science really is a type of schizophrenia. It is a mild form of the disease which I would call "hyper-reason". It is the same thing that happens in religion when other worlds are created where imagined Gods can exist. Fortunately most of those who suffer from this disease, called professors, are confined in the low security mental institutions that we call universities, where they can inflict little harm on mainstream society.

In his final chapter on "True Wisdom" he makes the following extraordinary statement: humans can "sort through our cognitive idiosyncrasies and decide which are worth addressing and which are worth letting go (or even celebrating)." There was a guy in Germany in the middle of the last century who had a similar idea! He also says that "making the right choice often requires an understanding of the road not traveled." This of course is paradoxical and it is certainly obvious that he has not traveled down many roads yet. He complains about modern education and students not being able to think and then in another extraordinary statement he says students no longer need to memorize things because we have Google! Duh! Even computers can't "think" without anything in memory, and creativity is impossible.

I agree with his view that human civilization has certainly developed and changed our "environment" much faster than our brain has been able to evolve. It is now badly out of sync with the needs of our culture, particularly in terms of the abstractions we call truth and the beliefs we have created in our sciences. This problem will correct itself in due course; as mankind definitely seems to be trying to "civilize" itself back to the Stone Age and it will be important to have some of our primitive brain functions in reserve.

The book started well but ultimately at the end degenerated into a list of self help platitudes. Because of its faulty premise, the book fails to prove our brains are in general "clumsy and inelegant" creations of our evolution. But it is interesting none the less; as it does perhaps show that some spectacular KLUGES do exist; being illustrated by the cases of university professors and lawyers.

This book is one of the better popular expositions of modern psychology/neuroscience. The basic idea is that our brains are a product of our evolutionary history, and just as our backs are subject to various problems because they were not originally "designed" to be vertical supports, and so represent a compromise, so our brains are very good solutions to certain problems, especially those which are vital for survival and reproduction, but are less optimal for others. Fortunately, if only we can recognize the weak points, we can often avoid being led too far astray by re-imagining the way we look at the problem in such a way that we can solve them with our strong points.
You will know yourself and others better once you have read this book, and will have some hints on how you can work around our weak spots. If you find the subject interesting, however, you will need to read some others, but no surprise as this follows from Gary's first piece of advice on what to do about the kluges: "Whenever possible, consider alternative hypotheses".

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3.0 out of 5 stars It Might be Evidence of its Own Conclusion
This book is its own best argument for the haphazard, meandering quality of the human brain and the human thinking process. Read more

Published on Sep 26 2009 by B. Breen

4.0 out of 5 stars A kluge about kluge
The book was informative - it explained concepts in a manner such that even an introductory reader could grasp them. Read more

Published on Mar 20 2009 by Remi Watts

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