steveho (steveho@concentric.net)
Sun, 18 Jan 1998 20:08:18 +0100
Thank you Doug for the "awesome" reply. Now I feel I can live out my
mediocre life as a stress-free dim bulb! <g>
>From a strictly neurological point of view, if my gene pool
predetermines much of the course of my life, what, if anything, flows up
my brain stem that's unique? I mean, why struggle with Kant's freedom,
God, and immortality, or Wittenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus,
or Poincare's Science and Hypotheses, or Pirsig's Quality is the Buddha,
or even the Boy Scout's motto, when it is only a matter of time before
neuroscience (brain imaging) uncovers the actual mechanism that sends
these mental constructs into Broca's area of the brain?
The new evolutionary psychologists have come up with some hardwired
doozies:
1) The males species are genetically hardwired to be polygamous
2) Woman are genetically hardwired to lust after male celebrities
3) Teenage girls are genetically hardwired to be promiscuous
4) Murderers suffer from toxic DNA
Look, everyone, don't shoot me. I'm just trying to understand some
things here; and I need your help. The brain is an analog chemical
computer, and as Doug so eloquently stated, it processes environmental
information in such a way that it might override or enhance the DNA
already there. I worry that the wall where Pirsig's single brick is
mounted is not situated on solid ground, but balanced on a bubble, full
of hot air, ready to be burst, and replaced with another bubble.
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