After talking with Richard Ngo, I now think there’s about an 8% chance that several interesting mental events are accessed by the genome; I updated upwards from 4%. I still think it’s highly implausible that most of them are.
Updating down to 3%, in part due to 1950′s arguments on ethology:
How do we want to explain the origins of behavior? And [Lehrman’s] critique seems to echo some of the concerns with evolutionary psychology. His approach can be gleaned from his example on the pecking behavior of chicks. Lorenz attributed this behavior to innate forces:The chicks are born with the tendency to peck; it might require just a bit of maturation. Lehrman points out that research by Kuo provides an explanation based on the embryonic development of the chick. The pecking behavior can actually be traced back to movements that developed while the chick was still unhatched. Hardly innate! The main point Lehrman makes: If we claim that something is innate, we stop the scientific investigation without fully understanding the origin of the behavior. This leaves out important – and fascinating – parts of the explanation because we think we’ve answered the question. As he puts it: “the statement “It is innate” adds nothing to an understanding of the developmental process involved”
After talking with Richard Ngo, I now think there’s about an 8% chance that several interesting mental events are accessed by the genome; I updated upwards from 4%. I still think it’s highly implausible that most of them are.
Updating down to 3%, in part due to 1950′s arguments on ethology: