From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@www.aeiveos.com)
Date: Sun Oct 10 1999 - 18:32:22 MDT
On Sun, 10 Oct 1999, Robert Owen wrote:
>
> None of this is argumentative; but I am always amazed that e.g. every-
> one everywhere has a chronometry of some kind. Perhaps you could
> help me understand this phenomenon.
Well, presumably it is "built-in" because it enhances survival.
We have recently isolated the genes responsible for controling
circadian rhythms and have begun to unravel how they are
"reset" by such phenomena as daylight. Obviously animals
that hunt by sight want to get an early start and be on
the playing field when the sun comes up. Similarly prey
of the nocturnal variety wants to wake up and come out
when it gets dark.
Since we have these chronometers built-in, our software
probably has leaned to take advantage of the hardware.
I've always been amazed at my ability to wake up in
advance of my alarm clock (if I program myself to do so).
In theory my brain should be "unconsious" when I'm asleep
but the internal clock seems to never sleep.
You could say the same about language -- even isolated
deaf/mute people will "invent" a language to communicate
with. If that isn't evidence for hardwiring (and of
the survival advantages of being able to communicate)
then I don't know what would be.
Robert
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:05:28 MST