Genetic encoding enables the basic form of cognition of all primates, including humans. It manifests itself in the form and structure of the brain. Essentially, there appear to be a variety of procedural thought mechanisms that are hard-wired within certain structures of the brain. Although there is plasticity in the organization of the brain, as summarized clearly by Sharon Begley’s Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain, the various sensory input facilities are preferentially connected to certain areas or structures within the brain; likewise for motor output control. For example, the reflexive actions that the body takes in response to certain stimuli are genetically inherited. They do not have to be learned in one generation from the behavior of previous generations, nor through the results of trial and action training. This matches quite well qualitatively with the brain structures suggested by MacLean whose organization we summarized in a previous section. The most ancient of the brain mechanisms, characterized as the reptilian brain, is viewed as the source of such behavior. This brain structure is common to all vertebrates, and appears qualitatively similar in all mammals. Here we can draw a rather interesting parallel with computer structure and organization.

As with living organisms, computer implementations can take a variety of forms, a fact that has been well illustrated over the last few decades. The profound aspect of the current incarnation of computers is the concept of a stored control program that effects the cognitive facilities of the machinery. This is the procedural memory of the computer. A spectrum of implementation strategies exists, ranging from function specific circuits to hierarchies of mechanisms implemented in the form of stored programs that allow very basic language relationships between the stored program and its implementation hardware to be redefined at will. In essence, these strategies allow one to bring into being, intermediate metaphorical environments ranging from the basic (i.e. genetic) level of the computer to the higher (i.e. cognitive) levels.

Continuing with the theme presented by Donald, the brain of precursor species to modern humans such as Australopithecus and Homo habilis was dominated by an episodic form of memory coupled to its sensori-motor environment. Episodic memory involves the hippocampus, which is an element of the limbic system. This would seem to match well with our understanding of the progression of human evolution in that the limbic system is one of the earliest manifestations of the mammals. Hence, episodic memory, as a step beyond, could reasonably constitute the oldest variant of memory, distinct from the precursor species, within modern humans.

When episodic memory is the prevailing form of memory within the brain it places rather severe constraints on the manner in which members of the species learn and, perhaps even more important, how they associate with each other. In other words, it has a significant impact on the grouping mechanisms available to the species. Sensory input and motor response are connected and stored within the brain as a very literal rendition of actual events. This means that the act of learning, which is an elemental basis of cognition, requires each individual person to acquire an actual experience. Thus, one learns by doing. This would seem to place significant limitations on the ability of the members of this species in extending the horizons of their interactions with other members of the species and with the physical world around them. When a successful process or mechanism is established in reaction to a given stimulus context, there is no significant impetus to seek better processes or response mechanisms or to establish a more expansive processes or response mechanism that encompasses the specific stimulus context as well as others. This limitation is supported through the observation that across the million or more year tenure of Australopithecus and Homo habilis the tool systems of the species show little enhancement. The fossil record suggests that this situation changed with the emergence of Homo erectus. To go beyond this limited capability for adaptation and advancement a mutational event related to

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