"Our colleague David Linden has compared the evolutionary history of the brain to the task of building a modern car by adding parts to a 1925 Model T that never stops running."
— Aamodt, Sandra; Wang, Sam
Author
Work Title
Date
March 31, 2009
Metaphor
"Our colleague David Linden has compared the evolutionary history of the brain to the task of building a modern car by adding parts to a 1925 Model T that never stops running."
Metaphor in Context
However, any comparison with computers misses a messy truth. Because the brain arose through natural selection, it contains layers of systems that arose for one function and then were adopted for another, even though they don’t work perfectly. An engineer with time to get it right would have started over, but it’s easier for evolution to adapt an old system to a new purpose than to come up with an entirely new structure. Our colleague David Linden has compared the evolutionary history of the brain to the task of building a modern car by adding parts to a 1925 Model T that never stops running. As a result, brains differ from computers in many ways, from their highly efficient use of energy to their tremendous adaptability.
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Aamodt, Sandra, and Sam Wang. "Computers vs. Brains." The New York Times Online Opinionator. March 31, 2009. <Link to NYTimes.com>
Date of Entry
03/11/2010
