How the Mind Changed: A Human History of Our Evolving Brain

Neuroscientist Jebelli (In Pursuit of Memory) ranges a bit too wide in this history of the human mind. In exploring the question of “why have we ended up with the brains we have,” Jebelli draws on philosophy, theology, and literature and considers empathy, consciousness, and depression. He offers up science’s take on free will (“You have free will, you just don’t have conscious will”), memory (evolutionarily traced back to “remembering predators and the location of food sources”), language acquisition (which began around 500,000 years ago, when “brain size ballooned in humans”), and artificial intelligence (some neuroscientists posit it may evolve in a way similar to the human brain). While he argues effectively that “to study the brain is to study the essence of what makes us human,” his frequent jumps in topic and timeline distract, and his most provocative claims—“Were we to understand the brain better than we currently do, we could predict a person’s future behaviour with astonishing accuracy,” and “Our autistic ancestors probably played a fundamental role in shaping early human societies due to their unique strengths and special abilities”—are presented without enough supporting evidence. This one doesn’t quite come together. (July)