Go to Hachette Book Group home

Search

Site Preferences

Show prices in:

Promotion

Use code CYBER2024 for 30% off sitewide + free shipping over $30

By clicking “Accept,” you agree to the use of cookies and similar technologies on your device as set forth in our Cookie Policy and our Privacy Policy. Please note that certain cookies are essential for this website to function properly and do not require user consent to be deployed.

How Brains Think

Evolving Intelligence, Then And Now

How Brains Think Open the full-size image

Contributors

By William H. Calvin

Formats and Prices

Price

$19.99

Price

$25.99 CAD

Format

Format:

  1. Trade Paperback $19.99 $25.99 CAD
  2. ebook $8.99 $11.99 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around September 6, 1997. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

Also available from:

If you’re good at finding the one right answer to life’s multiple-choice questions, you’re “smart.” But “intelligence” is what you need when contemplating the leftovers in the refrigerator, trying to figure out what might go with them; or if you’re trying to speak a sentence that you’ve never spoken before. As Jean Piaget said, intelligence is what you use when you don’t know what to do, when all the standard answers are inadequate. This book tries to fathom how our inner life evolves from one topic to another, as we create and reject alternatives. Ever since Darwin, we’ve known that elegant things can emerge (indeed, self-organize) from “simpler” beginnings. And, says theoretical neurophysiologist William H. Calvin, the bootstrapping of new ideas works much like the immune response or the evolution of a new animal species — except that the brain can turn the Darwinian crank a lot faster, on the time scale of thought and action. Drawing on anthropology, evolutionary biology, linguistics, and the neurosciences, Calvin also considers how a more intelligent brain developed using slow biological improvements over the last few million years. Long ago, evolving jack-of-all trades versatility was encouraged by abrupt climate changes. Now, evolving intelligence uses a nonbiological track: augmenting human intelligence and building intelligent machines.

Genre:

On Sale
Sep 6, 1997
Page Count
192 pages
Publisher
Basic Books
ISBN-13
9780465072781

You May Also Like

A Mood Apart
A Mood Apart $17.99 $22.50 CAD
Lying On The Couch
Lying On The Couch $17.99 $22.99 CAD
Momma And The Meaning Of Life
Momma And The Meaning Of Life $15.99 $20.99 CAD
On Combat
On Combat
How We Age
How We Age $21.99 $28.99 CAD

William H. Calvin

About the Author

William H. Calvin is a theoretical neurophysiologist at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is the author of nine books, including The Cerebral Code, The River That Flows Uphill, and, with the neurosurgeon George A. Ojemann, Conversations with Neil’s Brain.

Learn more about this author