love this description of behavioural modernity as a ‘suite’ of dispositions, further emphasising the software metaphor for thinking about human behaviour pic.twitter.com/IrmtZR7AqQ

— krish (@krishkhubchand) June 15, 2020

I am not sure this is actually correct, though. But it’s not testable so also not sure if it matters. We don’t really understand how the brain is wired, or if that is even an apt metaphor, and how it might have changed evolutionarily. Is it stochastic? If so, how much? If so, what are the genetic inputs and feedbacks and their extent? What mediates this? How flexible is it? What are the first- and second-order epigenetic inputs and effects? If there are hard-wired modules, to what extent are they hard-wired and how much does it take to “unwire” them? Etc.

These are all open questions, even if many scientists don’t really want to admit it.