One of America’s foremost philosophers offers a major new account of the origins of the conscious mind.
How did we come to have minds?
For centuries, this question has intrigued psychologists, physicists, poets, and philosophers, who have wondered how the human mind developed its unrivaled ability to create, imagine, and explain. Disciples of Darwin have long aspired to explain...
One of America’s foremost philosophers offers a major new account of the origins of the conscious mind.
How did we come to have minds?
For centuries, this question has intrigued psychologists, physicists, poets, and philosophers, who have wondered how the human mind developed its unrivaled ability to create, imagine, and explain. Disciples of Darwin have long aspired to explain how consciousness, language, and culture could have appeared through natural selection, blazing promising trails that tend, however, to end in confusion and controversy. Even though our understanding of the inner workings of proteins, neurons, and DNA is deeper than ever before, the matter of how our minds came to be has largely remained a mystery.
That is now changing, says Daniel C. Dennett. In From Bacteria to Bach and Back, his most comprehensive exploration of evolutionary thinking yet, he builds on ideas from computer science and biology to show how a comprehending mind could in fact have arisen from a mindless process of natural selection. Part philosophical whodunit, part bold scientific conjecture, this landmark work enlarges themes that have sustained Dennett’s legendary career at the forefront of philosophical thought.
In his inimitable style―laced with wit and arresting thought experiments―Dennett explains that a crucial shift occurred when humans developed the ability to share memes, or ways of doing things not based in genetic instinct. Language, itself composed of memes, turbocharged this interplay. Competition among memes―a form of natural selection―produced thinking tools so well-designed that they gave us the power to design our own memes. The result, a mind that not only perceives and controls but can create and comprehend, was thus largely shaped by the process of cultural evolution.
An agenda-setting book for a new generation of philosophers, scientists, and thinkers, From Bacteria to Bach and Back will delight and entertain anyone eager to make sense of how the mind works and how it came about.
Daniel C. Dennett is University Professor and Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University and the author of numerous books including Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking, Breaking the Spell, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, and Consciousness Explained.
In chapter 2 a question was posed and postponed: Why have there been so few famous female geniuses? Is it genes or memes or a mixture of both? Our present vantage point suggests that the answer will lie more in features of culture than in cortex—but not by supporting the discredited mantra from the 1960s: boys and girls are “biologically” the same; all differences are due to socialization and other cultural pressures. That is politically correct nonsense. Male and female brains are not exactly alike. How could they be, given the differences in paternal and maternal biological roles? There are dozens of reliably detectable differences of neuroanatomy, hormonal balance, and other physiological signs, and their genetic sources are not in doubt. Moreover, these physical differences issue in di... (查看原文)
So far, there is a fairly sharp boundary between machines that enhance our “Peripheral” intellectual powers (of perception, algorithmic calculation, and memory) and machines that at least purport to replace our “Central” intellectual powers of comprehension (including imagination), planning, and decision-making. Hand calculators; GPS systems; Pixar's computer graphics systems for interpolating frames, calculating shadows, adjusting textures and so forth; and PCR and CRISPR in genetics are all quite clearly on the peripheral side of the boundary, even though they accomplish tasks that required substantial expertise not so long ago. We can expect that boundary to shrink, routinizing more and more cognitive tasks, which will be fine so long as we know where the boundary currently is. The real... (查看原文)
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丹尼尔·丹尼特 作者
Ahoga
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1 有用 牛仔来杯快乐水 2023-11-16 04:31:24 江苏
自然进化展示着某种无处不在的达尔文式理由，这是一种没有推理者的理由，或者叫作自由漂移的理由（即不受任何占据特定时空位置的特定理性存在者的局限）。假如不诉诸这种理由，任何生物学意义上的功能归属皆不可能。自然选择能以某一个特定的达尔文式理由（而非另一个此类特定理由）来“筛选”某一特定的功能。 人类往往会误以为一些属性是世界本身的客观属性。实际上，这些属性是人类这种动物和世界交互的结果 人类的“自我”是... 自然进化展示着某种无处不在的达尔文式理由，这是一种没有推理者的理由，或者叫作自由漂移的理由（即不受任何占据特定时空位置的特定理性存在者的局限）。假如不诉诸这种理由，任何生物学意义上的功能归属皆不可能。自然选择能以某一个特定的达尔文式理由（而非另一个此类特定理由）来“筛选”某一特定的功能。 人类往往会误以为一些属性是世界本身的客观属性。实际上，这些属性是人类这种动物和世界交互的结果 人类的“自我”是虚构出来的叙事重心，人类的意识是虚构的用户错觉，人类的有意识的思维过程其实就是语言生成过程，人类的大部分思维过程都是无意识的，它们是神经活动。我们所以为的那个掌握主动权的自己，是神经系统的活动的被动产物。 (展开)
0 有用 没有色彩的红魔 2020-04-10 23:46:21
核心观点是很有启发的，但是很多时候太啰嗦了，直到本书的最后部分才开始最有趣的论述。
0 有用 hurlyburly 2024-11-18 11:39:15 江苏
读的很艰难，但英文版比中文版要好懂。 Competence without comprehesion, 从下到上的无目的的自然进化，从上到下有目的的文化（模因meme）进化，文化进化要比自然进化迅猛的多。对于AI的思考非常好，AI（算法）代替人类进行文化进化，速度要远超人类，人类又当如何。
6 有用 Liuxin3272005 2018-03-15 15:53:21
囫囵吞枣的看完丹内特的意识进化和解释，为什么我觉得他多少具有康德的革命性！我们都是基因和模因共同演化出来的产物，而演化论的视角的确可以作为思维工具和哲学方法论。总之感觉自己的视野提升了，视角也增加了，腰不酸腿不疼了，不过这可能也是意识的幻觉，哈哈！最后对AI恐慌的讨论也很精准，即使深度学习，AI最多达到波普尔生物的认知水平，具备贝叶斯试错能力。与其担心人工智能，不如担心人类自己的自负和非理性，放弃... 囫囵吞枣的看完丹内特的意识进化和解释，为什么我觉得他多少具有康德的革命性！我们都是基因和模因共同演化出来的产物，而演化论的视角的确可以作为思维工具和哲学方法论。总之感觉自己的视野提升了，视角也增加了，腰不酸腿不疼了，不过这可能也是意识的幻觉，哈哈！最后对AI恐慌的讨论也很精准，即使深度学习，AI最多达到波普尔生物的认知水平，具备贝叶斯试错能力。与其担心人工智能，不如担心人类自己的自负和非理性，放弃思考把重大决定权交给机器才是悲剧。对AI的过度拟人化，被他们的声音和视觉形象误导，可能类似于让宠物狗来教育孩子。所以，机器归机器，幻觉归幻觉，意识归意识。如果AI想提高自己的读心术，增强帮我们做决定的能力，让它滚！如果AI帮我们提升自己做出理性决策的能力，让它来！ (展开)
7 有用 sophie 2017-07-24 08:02:10
思路很清晰也很有趣，就是论述太啰嗦（举例简直是灾难，试图幽默地举例是重大灾难）。最后两页的概述很漂亮，想了解大致观点直接读这两页就可以了。