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One of the most exciting discoveries to
emerge from the recent explosion in brain research is the
phenomenon of neural plasticity. With the discovery of neural
plasticity, the traditional view of the brain as a hard-wired
collection of modules, virtually fixed for life by early
childhood, is being replaced by a revolutionary new image
of an amazingly versatile bio-computer able to quickly adapt
and reshape itself in response to its external environment
and, more significant, through symbols, to recreate itself
in endless possibilities, Stone Age to hi-tech.
Now, in a book that is sure to have a profound
impact on contemporary discussions of consciousness and
its origins, John Skoyles, a neuroscientist working at the
cutting edge of brain-mind research, and coauthor, award-winning
science writer Dorion Sagan, explain how the discovery of
the brain's remarkable flexibility changes the entire story
of the evolution of human intelligence, consciousness, and
culture. In the process they deal a devastating blow to
currently fashionable concepts of gene-programmed minds
advocated by evolutionary psychologists such as Steven Pinker.
Bringing together a vast array of until
now unconnected facts from the fields of neuroscience, neural
networks, cognitive science, child psychology, anthropology,
Paleolithic history, and more, the authors reconstruct the
100,000-year evolutionary odyssey of the human mind. Beginning
with our primate ancestors, they trace the parallel developments
of the prefrontal cortex -- the brain's symbol-using "conductor"
-- and increasingly complex hominid societies held together
by symbolic bonds. Step by step, Skoyles and Sagan retell
the story of the slow evolution of ever more sophisticated
symbolic systems and show how the process eventually led
to the development of mind-creating symbol-using programs
called mindware -- the evolutionary equivalent of
a Windows or Macintosh operating system, and the basis of
our modern consciousness. Drawing on startling new insights
into the brain's workings yielded by new brain-scanning
technologies, the authors reveal how mindware functions
to give us our sense of having an "I" -- and how
it lets us go beyond evolved behaviors and impulses to alter
the very structure, nature, and potentials of our brains.
Taking its cue from Carl Sagan's 1977 classic,
The Dragons of Eden, Up from Dragons is a
breathtaking account of the 'unnatural" history of
consciousness and human intelligence.
John Skoyles, Ph.D., a polymath who has
been compared to Stephen Hawking, was judged to be mentally
retarded as a child. Dr. Skoyles holds degrees from the
London School of Economics and University College London.
A former researcher funded by the British Medical Research
Council, he has chosen to become an independent scholar.
He has made significant contributions in the areas of neural
network models, ancient literacy, mirror neurons, and Greek
aesthetics. Dr. Skoyles has written numerous articles on
an array of subjects, including autism, dyslexia, the open
society, and the origin of classical Greek culture; these
have appeared in Nature, New Scientist, Trends
in Neuroscience, American Psychologist, PSYCOLOQUY,
Medical Hypotheses, and other prestigious journals.
Dorion Sagan, son of Carl Sagan, is an
award-winning science writer. He is coauthor of several
critically acclaimed books, including Microcosmos,
Slanted Truths: Essays on Gaia,
Evolution and Symbiosis, Acquiring
Genomes, What
Is Life?, and Origins
of Sex. His articles have appeared
in Wired,
The New York Times,
Smithsonian,
The Sciences,
and other leading publications.
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