Book Review: Kluge by Gary Marcus

Your mind is messed up.

Don't worry about it too much, because everyone else's is too. It's not our fault; you can blame evolution. I've always thought of the brain as an organ with redundant pathways and meandering circuits, a cobbled-together Rube Goldberg device that is so sensitive that the slightest change in development, genetics or environment can drastically impair its function. Luckily Gary Marcus, obviously a fan of Strunk and White, simply calls it a "Kluge" in his new book of the same name, subtitled "The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind." (1)

The main thesis of this work is that our mind is the result of overlayed technology; with each evolutionary advance, new neural pathways are added over the old ones. The analogy he offers, originally put forward by John Allman, is that of a modern hydroelectric plant. Originally run through a series of pneumatic pumps and devices, vacuum tubes were added to increase the efficiency. As computers entered the world they were also added. However, since the plant cannot be taken offline, each technology overlays the other as it becomes available. Computers control vacuum tubes control pumps control water flow. Not something that any sensible engineer would have designed from scratch, but one that works well enough given the restraints of the system.

As a result there is a conflict in humans between our recently evolved 'deliberative' mind (i.e prefontal cortex) and our reflexive mind (i.e. limbic system/basal ganglia; 2). Consequently, we often understand logic and rational thought but cannot fully act on it because our more basal instincts interfere.

Marcus offers five examples of this: memory (we have contextual memory rather than a more efficient, indexed system), belief (which is subject to priming, confirmation bias, etc.), choice (and our inability to act as homo economicus would), language (outside of math and computers, there is no rational, unambiguous means of communication), and pleasure (leading us to pursue activities that do not increase our reproductive fitness or, ironically, pleasure). He also devotes a chapter to examples of how everything falls apart. And just so that we aren't left hanging, how we can avoid such collapses in the first place.

This is a very readable book within the vein of popular psychology; at 176 pages it can be easily read in a few sittings. I also enjoy that while he offers praise for such researchers as Steven Pinker and Noam Chomsky, he also pokes at their theories (3). I would have liked to seen more neuroanatomy to parallel the phenomena he explores (4).

In total, this book can be seen as a summary of the sort of 'vestigial cognition' of our mind. Marcus points out that our mind has problems that simply don't go away by trying to reason that they have some secondary unknown benefit, a view commonly held by intelligent design creationists (5). To paraphrase Marcus, it's one thing to make lemons out of lemonade; it's another thing to claim that lemons are what you wanted all along.

image via Amazon

(1) I don't like the distinction between the mind and the brain that Marcus seems to make. In my view, the mind is what the brain does, in the same way that contraction is what a muscle does. More complicated, yes, but still just a physiological manifestation of an anatomical organ. But, I will try to use his terminology.

(2) To add another layer, Marcus could have discussed the most basic reflexes that take place at the spinal level. However, since these really lack a cognitive component, I can't blame him for ignoring this.

(3) Not too much though; Pinker still wrote a blurb for the book jacket.

(4) And some proofreading wouldn't have hurt. There were several grammatical/spelling errors that I hope they catch in the second printing.

(5) I think evolutionary psychology is a legitimate scientific endeavour, but too often its practitioners fall into a similar trap of developing 'just so' stories that are sometimes untestable. Not everything needs to be perfect; sometimes an evolved organ is just messed up, but also just good enough.