The Accidental Mind: How Brain Evolution Has Given Us Love, Memory,… (edition 2008)

Linden sets out to prove that our brains more closely resemble inefficient clunkers reflecting millions of years of evolutionary tinkering, rather than sophisticated, well-designed and amazing intelligent creations. He discusses the structure of our brain from the lower evolutionary parts of the brain stem and cerebellum through the more recent frontal lobes and cortex. When discussing the brain’s design, he uses a cool example of a supermodern racecar built on the Ford T plan, in which nothing of the original Ford T plan is to be dropped or replaced, and the new systems are to be built in addition and/or on top of the old ones. This is precisely how we ended up having two visual and two auditory systems in our brains- one ancient and one more modern. This is how congenitally blind people can in fact perceive movement and objects even though they don’t consciously realize that. It’s their ancient visual system at work. Linden also discusses the way our brain communicates within itself and how we come up with a picture of the world that is both physical and abstract. From what I understand, even though there are parts of the brain designated to perform specialized functions, the whole brain with all its parts creates the memories and images of what we perceive and know. Worldviews, dreams and religious views are an inherent feature of our brains creating narratives.

All in all, the book is a wonderfully balanced review of what we do and don’t know about the brain and the best debunking of intelligent design I have read in a while.

As a PS, there were some nice observations on sex in mammals and how humans compare to others. What caught my attention was the discussion of ovulation in females and the fact that the hidden ovulation of human females keeps males around since they never know when females are fertile. The joke is that females don’t know either, so they have to keep the males around as well (that wasn't in the book;), so the pair bonding is a must here because of that.

A note for audiobook fans. It's read in an outstandingly clear performance by Ray Porter. ( )

Fascinating in general -- I like particularly the analogy of building a CD player around an 8-track machine. However, I had a difficult time following a lot of the neurology... this is not for the scientifically-uninclined! ( )

Surprisingly well-written book on the biology and evolution of the human brain, for the non-scientific reader. Linden gets just far enough into the actual science to give an idea of what's going on.

"The brain is not elegantly designed by any means: it is a cobbled-together mess, which, amazingly, and in spite of its shortcomings, manages to perform a number of very impressive functions." ( )