Our genes don’t determine everything we will become, but they do determine how much we can be shaped by experiences during early childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, which, for all, is quite a bit.
The brain, like it or not, is a machine. Scientists have come to that conclusion, not because they are mechanistic killjoys, but because they have amassed evidence that every aspect of consciousness can be tied to the brain.
- Steven Pinker , “The Mystery of Consciousness”
For Plato, the mind was a chariot. For Descartes, it was a mechanical clock. For Freud, it was a steam engine. Today, the most common analogue for the mind is the computer. Although it’s true that our brains are not literally digital computers, built on silicon circuits and binary logic, the modern metaphor of the mind as a computer is by far the most powerful and comprehensive one we’ve ever had.