This, in turn, implies that human values/biases/high-level cognitive observables are produced by relatively simpler hardcoded circuitry, specifying e.g. the learning architecture, the broad reinforcement learning and self-supervised learning systems in the brain, and regional learning hyperparameters.
… the evolved modularity cluster posits that much of the machinery of human mental algorithms is largely innate. General learning—if it exists at all—exists only in specific modules; in most modules learning is relegated to the role of adapting existing algorithms and acquiring data; the impact of the information environment is de-emphasized. In this view the brain is a complex messy cludge of evolved mechanisms.
There is another viewpoint cluster, more popular in computational neuroscience (especially today), that is almost the exact opposite of the evolved modularity hypothesis. I will rebrand this viewpoint the “universal learner” hypothesis, aka the “one learning algorithm” hypothesis (the rebranding is justified mainly by the inclusion of some newer theories and evidence for the basal ganglia as a ‘CPU’ which learns to control the cortex). The roots of the universal learning hypothesis can be traced back to Mountcastle’s discovery of the simple uniform architecture of the cortex.[6]
The universal learning hypothesis proposes that all significant mental algorithms are learned; nothing is innate except for the learning and reward machinery itself (which is somewhat complicated, involving a number of systems and mechanisms), the initial rough architecture (equivalent to a prior over mindspace), and a small library of simple innate circuits (analogous to the operating system layer in a computer). In this view the mind (software) is distinct from the brain (hardware). The mind is a complex software system built out of a general learning mechanism.
See also the previous LW discussion of The Brain as a Universal Learning Machine.