In his new book, Kluge: The haphazard construction of the human mind, Gary Marcus aims to take the human species down a peg or two. We might like to think of ourselves as sleek and perfectly-adapted products of evolution, but Marcus instead describes the brain as a clumsy collection of spare parts. If evolution is so powerful, he asks, how did we end up so flawed? Jo Marchant caught up with him.
What exactly is a kluge?
A kluge is a clumsy or inelegant solution to a problem that gets the job done, but not necessarily in the best way possible.
Why do you think that the mind is a kluge?
There are two answers to that. The first is a general argument about evolution: that if you look at evolution it makes a lot of kluges. Evolution tends not to optimise things; it simply tinkers with what's already there. So it tends to make things better but there's no guarantee that it will make the best.
The second is an empirical argument. I look to see whether there is anything clumsy about the human mind, and I find lots of examples.
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