Natural History of the Mind

This book is a simple explanation of how the mind evolved. One of the many interesting facts emerging from this study is that vision appeared long before there was any brain of significance. Perception therefore had to be direct awareness of forms, patterning, smells, and so on. Survival depended on sensory input being an immediate representation of reality. The world as seen could not have been something pieced together and mulled over in a brain which didn't exist. Memory and learning are said to occur at a molecular level for much the same reasons. Today's social insects exhibit enormously complex behavior, yet their brains are microscopic. All such facts, gleaned from both the past and present, have a major impact upon theories about how our own minds operate.