The Beautiful Metaphor of the Sea Squirt

“Consider the life of the sea squirt. As a newborn, this little ocean dweller swims off in search of a good place to live, all the while struggling to feed itself. When at last it finds a habitat, a little nook or cranny in a piece of coral, it backs in a permanently attaches itself. No longer in need of its brain to get on in the world, it eats it.” (LLH, pg. 100)

I just finished reading two books of popular science: “Mutants: On the Form, Varieties and Errors of the Human Body” and “Liars, Lovers, and Heroes: What the New Brain Science Reveals about How We Become Who We Are.” I would recommend them both to anyone curious about human origins.

“Mutants” details how various congenital conditions (a la the Total Recall triple nipple) inadvertently provide clues to the typical functioning of developmental pathways. Relevant to anyone who ages, near the end, the author Leroi discusses some of the theories of aging and makes the case that part of aging is in effect a constellation of diseases caused by the weak influence of natural selection on “time-bomb mutations.”

“L.L.H.” is a mélange of chapters (that could have been standalone essays) that relate the implications of what the scientist co-authors term cultural biology while providing a background into less contentious neuroscience. They try to distance themselves from the evolutionary psychology and sociobiology camp by emphasizing the malleable aspects of human intelligence.