Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!versatc!mips!prls!philabs!linus!mbunix!bwk
From: bwk@mbunix.mitre.org (Barry W. Kort)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Free will and responsibility.
Summary: Try _The Dragons of Eden_ and _Broca's Brain_ by Carl Sagan
Keywords: Self-Protective Behaviors, Survival Strategies, Devils and Angels
Message-ID: <56036@linus.UUCP>
Date: 13 Jun 89 20:40:40 GMT
References: <10333@ihlpb.ATT.COM> <3850@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> <52019@linus.UUCP> <533@orawest.UUCP> <2586@rice-chex.ai.mit.edu> <54737@linus.UUCP> <401@edai.ed.ac.uk>
Sender: news@linus.UUCP
Reply-To: bwk@mbunix (Barry Kort)
Organization: Cerebral Tours, Pt. Lobos, CA
Lines: 20

In article <401@edai.ed.ac.uk> cam@edai (Chris Malcolm) writes:

 > A notion I recall from school biology was that we have three nested
 > brains: a lizard's brain, which provided the instincts and passions, a
 > mammal's brain, which provided the emotions and moral feelings, and the
 > cerebral thingy, which provided rational thought, pedantry, etc.. Before
 > I get too taken with this notion, would anybody like to slander it?

I recently picked up a copy of _The Dragons of Eden_, which I first read
so long ago, I forgot what was in it.  Carl Sagan, in his characteristically
populist style, describes the R-Complex (Reptilian Brain), the Limbic
System, and the Neocortex.  Not being a neuroanatomist, I tend to get
my information from sources written for the lay audience.  Anyway, your
understanding seems to correspond with the _Dragons of Eden_ discussion.

I suspect the lifelong neuroscientist would be appalled that I would
learn about my brain from a planetary scientist, but I can read
Sagan without falling asleep.

--Barry Kort