1. Feeling

Brain surgery, self-taught

One advantage of computers is that they never get emotional. They’re not misled by their dreams or desires. They’re not seduced by the lazy answer or the simplistic story. They’re not subject to mood swings, and they’re not swayed by irrelevant data. In short, they don’t suffer from the cognitive biases that make humans so irrational. Computers simply follow the instructions they’ve been given—quickly and accurately. That’s their charm.

Yet here’s a question no one ever asks: If the ability to make fast, accurate calculations is so valuable, why hasn’t evolution equipped us to think like computers? Isn’t four million years enough time to endow our brains with at least the computing power of, say, a cheap ...

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