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A Review of How the Mind Works AI Magazine Volume 19 Number 3 (1998) (© AAAI) Book Review states that served biological fitness in A Review of ancestral environments.… It is made up of modules for reasoning about how objects, artifacts, living things, How the Mind Works animals, and other human minds work” (pp. 524–525). Pinker chooses to use the word engineering on purpose because he Tapio Elomaa wants to convince the reader that the human mind has really been engi- neered, by evolution, to its present configuration. As evidence of this tele- ological construction, he takes the Steven Pinker’s previous book, the ny anecdotes from movies, literature, universal, complex, well-engineered, widely successful The Language cartoons, and so on, to invigorate the and reproduction-promoting design Instinct (Pinker 1994) forcefully pro- text. All this adds up to a fluent and of, for example, language and stereo moted Noam Chomsky’s idea of a uni- entertaining reading experience. How- vision. According to Pinker, we have versal grammar underlying particular ever, what about the substance? Partly, innate instincts for such abilities natural languages, the innate lan- the research surveyed in this book can because of the many mental modules guage ability of humans, and present- already be considered classical; for that have become a part of our geno- ed a theory of how a language organ example, the extensive coverage of type. could have evolved through Darwini- human stereo vision is mostly based Pinker’s theory of the human mind an natural selection. His provocative on Marr’s (1982) seminal account of stands firmly on two legs: The first one monograph is now attracting chal- the subject. However, the experimen- is the computational theory of mind lenging texts from other cognitive sci- (CTM), the tenet that the mind in its entists (for example, Deacon [1997]), tal psychology research that is entirety is a result of the information but Pinker himself is ahead by leaps reviewed in the book is relatively processing of the brain and nothing and bounds. This time, he has decided recent. Many of the ideas that Pinker else. CTM also encompasses the basic to tackle an even larger issue; in his presents have been in the air in evolu- latest book, How the Mind Works, tionary psychology; particularly influ- dogma of AI, computationality: Intelli- Pinker presents his hypothesis of the ential and much cited in this book are gence is a form of information pro- origins and the logical structure of the the studies of Cosmides and Tooby cessing. The book’s introduction to whole human mind. A book with (1994). Pinker’s own contribution is to these concepts borrows directly from such a title and content must, surely, boldly combine all these ideas into a AI: Pinker briefly goes through pro- duction systems and the simplest interest any AI researcher. united theory of the mind and its ori- models of neural computation (per- The book is intended for a wider gins. audience than just the professional ceptron and backpropagation). cognitive scientists’ circle. Therefore, The main contests of the CTM, of it contains many discussions that How the Mind Works, course, need to be refuted. First, appear simple and superficial for any- Pinker is an advocate of the view that one who has studied the philosophy Steven Pinker, W. W. information in our minds is represent- and foundations of AI a little deeper. Norton & Co., New ed symbolically. Therefore, he reviews However, working within AI-related some of the inherent problems of the topics, there are many of us who have York, 1997, 660 pp., purely connectionistic approaches to not followed closely the involved cog- $29.90, ISBN 0-393- intelligence. Second, Pinker discusses nitive science arguments and are not the two best-known denials of compu- aware of all the recent developments 04535-8. tationality and AI—Searle’s Chinese in psychology. For us, Pinker’s book room and Penrose’s fierce and delusive serves as a good introduction to the attacks on AI (cf., LaForte, Hayes, and big picture. The less advanced pas- Ford [1997]). Pinker, fortunately, does sages of the book should be worth tol- Reverse Engineering not dwell on any of these unfruitful erating even for a dedicated cogni- the Mind topics too long but swiftly moves on tionist because of the book’s other to build his case about the general In Pinker’s own words, the book is merits. architecture of the mind. It is not an accident that Steven about “reverse-engineering the neural The other cornerstone of Pinker’s Pinker keeps authoring popular sci- computer fitted by natural selection case is the theory of evolution. Like ence books that attain great attention with combinatorial algorithms for AI, Darwinian natural selection still and success; he is a talented writer, causal and probabilistic reasoning raises feelings and voices. Therefore, and together with his background about plants, animals, objects, and the book gives an account of natural team, he is capable of digging up fun- people. …[The mind is] driven by goal selection and adaptation. The review Copyright © 1998, American Association for Artificial Intelligence. All rights reserved. 0738-4602-1998 / $2.00 FALL 1998 135 Book Review entails refuting backward causation, Reasons for Emotions system starts developing, and it is which, in retrospect, is what natural most vulnerable to toxins. selection might seem to do. Adapta- In the second half of the book, Pinker This explanation for pregnancy tion of an organ to perform a different is on his own ground—psychology. sickness is so natural that it almost task than its original function, howev- This is the most interesting part of the seems trivial. Nevertheless, it is only a er, has been attacked with arguments investigation into the human recent discovery, and no satisfactory of the type “half a wing is not useful.” mind—exploring ways in which natu- explanation existed before it. Morning Pinker, therefore, meticulously ex- ral selection could have opted for a sickness is a specialized emotion that plains the functioning of adaptation. humanlike intelligence and reverse- only affects pregnant women for a When discussing evolution, one can- engineering emotions. On the surface, limited time. Moreover, it is a physical not avoid the argument of what is the it seems that intelligence of human feeling, not a general emotion. Can impact of heredity (evolution pro- magnitude—and the large, uneco- general emotions such as disgust, fear, nomical brain that it requires—could duced) and learning (environment happiness, anger, and romantic love hardly have been favored over much imposed) on the human mind. Of also be traced back in the same man- simpler survival options. In particular, course, heredity and learning are not ner? The generality of these emotions, our capacity for general and abstract mutually exclusive, but Pinker’s posi- of course, makes it harder to pinpoint reasoning seems, from the evolution- tion is that little in the human mind’s a sole purpose for them, but Pinker ary point of view, to be futile. Such a kernel (and personality) is learned. For gives it a try. Disgust, naturally, works faculty must be an adaptation, adapta- example, identical-twin studies have against digesting poisons; fears pre- tion of the reasoning capabilities that clearly demonstrated that much more pare us to meet dangers; the pursuit of helped our foraging ancestors to out- than we usually think of human happiness is a (calibrated) way of striv- wit prey. What has been the impetus behavior and psyche is innate rather ing after Darwinian fitness; anger is for the unique growth of human brain than acquired by interaction with the one of the moralistic emotions—the capacities that has not happened with environment. strategies in the reciprocity game apes or other, more distant animals? The human mind was fitted for among humans—the particular func- Pinker proposes four main reasons: (1) ancestral environments, which is why tion of which is to cause desire to pun- primates are visual animals, and nego- our senses might sometimes leave us ish the cheaters among us (Trivers tiating the 3-D world requires reason- stranded in the modern world. For ing about movable objects in there; (2) 1985); and finally, romantic love is an example, visual illusions have long group living stimulates social competi- emotion that ensures the uncondi- been used as public amusement, and tion; (3) bipedal walking has left the tionality of pair bonding. they cause constant amazement. The hands free for creative tool use; (4), Pinker also tries to find the cause for human vision is probably the most hunting, besides demanding brain, some human actions—and the emo- extensively studied and the best enables it to grow by providing the tions behind them—that are most understood of the brain modules rich nutrient, meat. often written off as works of mental (mind organs). It serves as Pinker’s Most of us nurture the idea that illness or lunacy, with no real need for, main evidence for his case. About emotions come from the nature, or possibility of, a psychological expla- vision, we know that it is like Pinker inhabit the body, are somewhat irra- nation. The ghastly example consid- paints the rest of the mind to be: The tional, and are mostly uncontrollable, ered in the book is a mass murderer eyes produce the raw data for the whereas the intellect resides in the running amok. Even such horrendous- brain to chew on. Allocated in its own mind, derives from civilization, is ly extreme actions have an underlying specified regions of the brain, there is rational, and is deliberate. Pinker general psychological phenomenon. a mental module that takes care of paints another picture: Emotions are Human social life is all about relations, vision production.
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