0465044069-fm-OSX.qxd 9/20/04 3:18 PM Page i Praise forTHE BIRTH OF THE MIND “Gary Marcus has written the real deal. This book is smart, tough, and insightful.” —Michael S. Gazzaniga, author of Nature’s Mind “If you’ve ever wondered about the space between genes and the mind, here’s the book that connects the dots. Marcus’s book is clear, fascinating, and up-to-date.” —Howard Gardner “This is without a doubt the clearest account of the relationship between genes and environment that I have ever read. Marcus has digested an enormous amount of in- formation from very diverse fields, and integrated it into a smooth-flowing, user- friendly whole.” —Derek Bickerton, author of Language and Human Behavior “Engaging and clear . . . covers a truly amazingrange.” —Richard C. Atkinson, past President of the University of California “The Birth of the Mindisfast, accurate, and informative—an excellent overview of new ideas and research. Gary Marcus will light up all eight of your brain’s lobes!” —Greg Bear, author of Darwin’s Children “A lucid, lively text.” —Library Journal “A wonderful bookwhich I heartily recommend to any interested readers who want to explore either genomics or the workings of the mind/brain.” —Metapsychology “Interesting and accessible. . . progress in genomics means that we are now ready to learn about the mind by understanding how genes build the brain.” —Genome News Network “An engaging and often wittylook at how our genetic code can be simple enough to make basic proteins and complicated enough to help us learn languages.” —Amazon.com Editorial Review “Psychologist Marcus provides an accessible discussion of genetic history and current research.. . . A lucid, pleasing chronicleof how genes construct the human mind.” —Booklist 0465044069-fm-OSX.qxd 9/20/04 3:18 PM Page ii ALSO BY GARY MARCUS The Algebraic Mind: Integrating Connectionism and Cognitive Science 0465044069-fm-OSX.qxd 9/20/04 3:18 PM Page iii The Birth of the Mind How a Tiny Number of Genes Creates the Complexities of Human Thought (cid:1) GARY MARCUS AMember of the Perseus Books Group New York 0465044069-fm-OSX.qxd 9/29/04 2:05 PM Page iv All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address Basic Books, 387 Park Ave South, New York, NY 10016-8810. Copyright © 2004 by Gary Marcus Published by Basic Books, A Member of the Perseus Books Group Hardcover edition first published in 2004 in the United States of America by Basic Books; paperback edition first published in 2004. Books published by Basic Books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the United States by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge MA 02142, or call (617) 252-5298 or (800) 255-1514, or e-mail [email protected]. The Library of Congress has catalogued the hardcover edition as follows: Marcus, Gary F. (Gary Fred) The birth of the mind : how a tiny number of genes creates the complexities of human thought / Gary F. Marcus. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-465-04405-0 (hc.) 1. Genetic psychology. 2. Psychobiology. 3. Nature and nurture. 4. Cognitive science. I. Title. BF701.M32 2004 155.7—dc21 2003012545 ISBN 0-465-04406-9 (pbk.) Set in AGaramond MV 04 05 06 / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21 0465044069-fm-OSX.qxd 9/20/04 3:18 PM Page v Contents Acknowledgments vii 1 Neither Is Better 1 2 Born to Learn 15 3 Brain Storms 31 4 Aristotle’s Impetus 47 5 Copernicus’s Revenge 67 6 Wiring the Mind 89 7 The Evolution of Mental Genes 111 8 Paradox Lost 147 9 Final Frontiers 165 Appendix: Methods for Reading the Genome 179 Glossary 191 Notes 209 References 227 Index 259 Name Index 269 v 0465044069-fm-OSX.qxd 9/20/04 3:18 PM Page vi 0465044069-fm-OSX.qxd 9/20/04 3:18 PM Page vii Acknowledgments The philosopher Peter Singer has written about an “Expanding Circle” of social contacts in which humans, over time, have learned to extend ethical concern to ever-widening groups of people—to their families, to their tribes, to other humans, to animals, and to other liv- ing things. This book is the product of a different sort of expanding circle, the expanding circle of a scientist striving to bridge a wide range of disciplines. It could not have been written without the help of my own inner circle, the greater circle of my immediate contacts, and the still greater circle of e-mail-savvy scientists whom I’ve never even met but who took the time to answer my questions on topics ranging from gene-counting to Princess Leia’s career prospects. Four people deserve special mention. Simon Fisher read every word and made me reconsider each and every one; his Talmudic commentary on the penultimate draft was nearly as long as the manuscript itself (or maybe it only seemed that way!), a master class from a new and already treasured friend. Athena Vouloumanos read not just every word but nearly every draft of every word; she was with me from the first word of the first outline to the last word of the index. Never one to give praise where it was undeserved, she pushed me to rewrite and rewrite until she liked every line. She may be named after a goddess, but she was my Muse. Steve Pinker, too, read every word, and before that, in the early 1990s, gave me the training that stimulated me to think about the very questions that animate this book. It was a true privilege to learn to write—and to think—while watching over his shoulder; as an ap- prentice I couldn’t have asked for more. vii 0465044069-fm-OSX.qxd 9/20/04 3:18 PM Page viii viii Acknowledgments My father, Phil Marcus, was my first teacher. His probing, pene- trating intellect—and his insistence that I always look beyond the here and now of my own research to how it all fits together—has its stamp on every page. Over a dozen more, with training in fields from cognitive develop- ment to evolution, medicine, behavioral genetics, and biochemistry— I hope I haven’t missed anyone—read drafts and made detailed com- ments, catching howlers, calling me on obscurities, and educating me in the finer details of their own disciplines: Yuri Arshavsky, Shoba Bandi Rao, Derek Bickerton, Luca Bonatti, Rob Boyd, Tom Clan- dinin, Barbara Finlay, Peter Gordon, George Hadjipavlou, Ellen Markman, Liqun Luo, Franck Ramus, Rasmus Storjohann, Heather van der Lely, and Essi Viding. Others, including Evan Balaban, Iris Berent, Istvan Bodnar, Beth Bromley, Anders Ericsson, Judit Gervain, Kristen Hawkes, Ray Jack- endoff, Kathleen Much, Ivan Sag, Dan Sanes, Ralf Schoepfer, Mark Turner, Barbara Tversky, and Fei Xu, read and commented on se- lected chapters. Audiences at dozens of universities, including Arizona, Berkeley, CMU, Cornell, CUNY, Oxford, Rochester, Stanford, UBC, UC Davis, UCL, UCLA, the University of Toronto, and Yale, and a terrific set of workshops on innateness organized by Peter Carruthers, Steve Stich, and Steven Lawrence, helped sharpen my thinking. Bruce Baker, Noam Chomsky, Michael Cooke, Sarah Dunlop, Douglas Frost, Randy Gallistel, Lila Gleitman, Justin Halberda, Marc Hauser, Jen- nifer Lee, Kathy Nordeen, Laszlo Patthy, Samuel Pfaff, Sandor Pongor, Todd Preuss, Rob Sampson, Greg Sutcliffe, Michael Tomasello, Ajit Varki, Michael Weliky, Al Yonas, and the crew at the ensembl.org helpdesk patiently answered my queries. New York University gave me two years’ leave; Keith Fernandes kept the lab going while I wrote. The Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford sheltered me in the rare moments of California rain and brought me together with Mark Turner and a wonderful crew of fellow Fellows, especially Ivan Sag, Anders Erics- son, Istvan Bodnar, Bob Brandom, Malka Rappaport Hovav, Danielle 0465044069-fm-OSX.qxd 9/20/04 3:18 PM Page ix Acknowledgments ix MacBeth, and Kristen Hawkes, not to mention the many superb lin- guists, psychologists, computer scientists, and biologists down the hill. Financial support came from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP), and the MacArthur Foundation. Katinka Matson helped me find a home for my manuscript. Jo Ann Miller guided me on the art of writing for the general public; Kathy Streckfus polished the manuscript to a shine; Tim Fedak of figs.ca helped illustrate it; and, Rich Lane and Felicity Tucker and their team turned a manuscript into a beautiful book. And finally, I thank my mother, Marilyn Marcus; my stepmother, Linda; my sister, Julie, and my Aunt Esther and Uncle Ted, for always encouraging me in whatever I’ve endeavored to do. Thank you all! One more sentence and you’d all be coauthors!