During the first ten minutes of class, write a summary of your reading from the first chapter of Gary Marcus’ Kluge. Also, how would you compare Marcus’ writing to O’Shea’s? Before our next class on Monday, type up your summary and post it as a comment to this blog post.
ENG1101 D340 English Composition I, SPR2015
Official site for ENG1101 D340
Gary Marcus argues convincingly that our minds are not as elegantly designed as we may believe. In other words, he unveils a fundamentally new way of looking at the evolution of the human mind. In my mind, not taking notes is a mistake that we as students make sometimes because in our mind we think we’ll memorize it later on after we see something similar to what we were suppose to do. As Marcus’s explain why we make mistakes, the imperfections result from a haphazard evolutionary process that often proceeds by piling new systems on top of old ones. I didn’t like Marcus’s point on evolution because he show like evolution is blind or is not happening. Moreover, I enjoy it but not as much as O’Shea’s “The Brain”.
I believe Gary Marcus’ Kluge is basically arguing about the human mind itself is a kluge. He explains why our brain’s design is not perfect and mistakes were made and explain what mistakes were made and why. For example; you can’t remember the name of that girl in our class when you run into her somewhere. Our mind is the most fantastic kluge of all, a quirky yet magnificent product of the entirely blind process of evolution. In the final analysis, evolution isn’t all about perfection. It’s about obtaining an outcome that is good enough.
Gary Marcus gives us and the rest of his readers an extremely intellectual argument on the mind itself. Although, i’m a tad confused and bothered because in the very beginning of the chapter in the first paragraph. Mr. Marcus states “If mankind were the product of some intelligent, compassionate designer, our thoughts would be rational”. I disagree with this because either way it still makes us human and compassion and intelligence aren’t the only key components in mankind. And besides the idea of reasoning is just having the two parties agree to one thing so being rational only depends in certain situations. It was a really good read but this really stood out to me and thought it could be interesting to think about!
Kluge by Gary Marcus
First than anything, Gary Marcus introduces his chapter explaining what “Kluge” means, that is “a clumsy or inelegant- surprisingly effective- solution to a problem”, so the reader can understand what that is and also he gives many examples on how kluge has been applied in life. And all this is just to compare it with the evolution of the brain through the time. Marcus explains that our body is a kluge too and our mind is no less kluge than it. He describes our brain as an amazing machine, but also suggests that is a kluge, the origin of many of our disagreements. Our brain is far from being perfect but if we could go back in time and build it from the beginning to get a perfect one maybe everything would be different, that’s why our brains, mind and body have been adapted by natural selection and work as they do it. I think that Marcus is trying to explain that our brain is not perfect as we may think but what I believe is that absolutely nothing could be perfect in life and our brain is included but it has worked very well all this time and that’s why is a “kluge” as Marcus said. I liked a lot to read this because in some way, the author indirectly tried to give us some suggestions to learn how to happily live with our brain’s limits.
O’ Shea’s and Gary Marcus are both explaining how our brain works but they do it in different ways. O’ Shea’s perceives how wonderful our brain is and that it works very hard to make possible everything we do and that it is very smart to control all of our movements, I think he’s trying to show us all the good things that our brain do. However Marcus perceives our brain different because he’s trying to explain that it isn’t perfect as we may think and although our brain is a wonderful machine we have adapted to perfectly work with it even is full of kluge. What I think is that O’ Shea’s explains the capacity of our brain in a more positive form that Marcus does.
Gary Marcus gives us an argument about the mind itself. He states that our minds are not a creation from the creator himself (God) but its a “kluge”, a kluge in the chapter is referred to as “evolutionary inertia”. What seems to be happening in the book is the old rivalry between religion and science, Marcus explains how our body is a kluge as well but the mind is the most kluge. Marcus states “If mankind were the product of some intelligent, compassionate designer, our thoughts would be rational”, but didn’t God give us the capacity to think of anything whatsoever that’s what makes us human our thoughts do not need to be rational all the time. This was a very interesting passage to read and it really fuels up your thoughts.
In the chapter the Kluge, Marcus Gary seemed to only talk about the brain as being more of a disaster rather then something we should be thankful for. The author obviously knew what the human brain is capable of but rather than being blown away by it, he mentioned that sometimes the brain could be classified as a wreck. He does not necessarily just talk negatively about the brain but he was deliberate about the realities of the brain. Marcus Gary points out that although the brain is a fascinating piece of “machine” it has it’s flaws that affects each one of us with our daily decisions.
My summary of Gary Marcus’ Kluge
Reading Gary Marcus’ Kluge has been a great experience for me. At the beginning, I wasn’t sure what Gary was relating to – other than it seemed that he was trying to understand and was searching for answers of how human beings minds work. Nevertheless, my curiosity had kept me reading to find out what was the reason behind Gary’s exploring thoughts – then I came across the word “Kluge” and how it was relevant to Gary’s unsettled mind. At first I didn’t know the meaning of the “Kluge”, but as I proceeded to read my eyes were captured by the definition. According to Gary, “Kluge was defined as “All ill-assorted collection of poorly matching parts, forming a distressing whole”, by a computer pioneer named Jackson Granholm. He also stated that engineers referred to a “Kluge” as “A clumsy or inelegant – yet unsurprising effective – solution to a problem. Gary went on to say that “The most fantastic kluge of them all – the human mind, a quirky yet magnificent product of the entirely blind process of evolution.” An example of a “kluge”, Rube Goldberg’s simplified pencil sharpener “ a kite attached to a string lifts a door, which allows moths to escape, culminating in the lifting of a cage, which frees woodpecker to gnaw the wood that surrounds a pencil’s graphite core.”
For many years, I’ve been using substitutes to fix broken house appliances, such as, duct tapes, rubber bands, plastic, and anything else that could have kept the appliances together. Moreover, the thought had never struck my mind that they were “kluges”. For example, my vase fell to the floor and as a result it was broken into three (3) pieces – to connect the pieces together, I used the famous duct tape that made it usable once more.
At the end, even though the human’s minds can be like a total train wreck, “kluges” can be very resourceful and can give us clues into how we can improve ourselves.
In today’s assignment of Kluge the author talks about the meaning of the word kluge and how it relates to the brain. Kluge is something that isn’t the most practical way to fix or do something, but it still works. The author likens this to the brain by explaining that the brain has many functions that are wrong with it but it works for the very basic things that we use it for daily. Compared to O’sheas “The Brain” the tone is very different. Where O’shea appreciated the brain for all that it does, Gary Marcus speaks on all the problems with the brain.
Justin Echevarria
“The Kluge” was very logic with his statements, I am not referring to anyone whom takes offense to his if you’d like to call “beliefs”. In the first paragraph on page 1., he makes a claim and judgement that’s against Christianity. “If mankind were the product of some intelligent, compassionate designer, our thoughts would be rational, our logic impeccable” (1, line 4) this just stood out to me amazingly how he questions a religion that is believed throughout 70% of people in the world. As some will read this and also be against me due to I too share the same beliefs with Marc Gary and question others. What I believe is being said sometimes religion can blur logical thinking from others and possibly have affect on others judgement. During this reading I had very little interest in actually comprehending what was going on in the rest of the chapter, the first page was just always brought to mind and it remain in my thoughts now. This proves to me ignorance isn’t bliss, the mind is much more creative than what people think it is capable.
Gary Marcus argues that the human mind may not be so well designed as we might think, but rather a Kluge, “a clumsy or inelegant- surprisingly effective- solution to a problem”. He points out all the flaws and imperfections of the brain, and tells us why the “mistakes” were made. If we were to go back in time and design the human brain from scratch, it would most likely have a whole different design than today. We are a product of the blind process of evolution, even though some human designs come very close to perfection, it is not clearly always the way. He refers to evolution as a mountain range, were it is possible for evolution to get stuck on a peak that is short of the highest conceivable summit.
Marcus Gary
The Kludge
Summary
“No brain at all, some of them [people], only grey fluff that’s blown into their heads by mistake, and they don’t Think.”
― A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner
While I was reading the first chapter of the kludge by Marcus Gary, it was interesting how he define the brain like a kludge, but what is a kludge? Well, a kludge is an awkward or inferior computer that was made really quick in order to solve a problem. This is related on how he define the brain which have a lot similarities to a kludge which means the brain is not 100% flawless. To begin with, Gary points out that even though the brain is a complex machine, it is for sure that it has some issues such as the memory which cannot be rely so much at the moment of a witness case in a court because the person can easily made a mistake while remembering a suspect. Another aspect that the author mentions is the language we use, for example, English has some irregularities which can be described that a word can have different meanings or similar words that could be easily confuse. Also, he describe the logic way of the brain in order to demonstrate the functionality of the brain and of the terms he used was syllogism which can be described as 2 logic sentences that are truth and based to those first two sentences, there will be a conclusion sentences which reflect the veracity of the previous sentences, for example, “All angry being are human, Humans are often wrong. Therefore wrong is an angry human, Angry humans are often wrong because of something unknown.” –David Gunning. Another example that he mentioned is about the tv show called “Mcgyver” where the main character employs everyday object in order to create something amazing, for instance, a bomb using some powder and probably some home supplies. This is a reference of how the brain can apply imagination in order to create something new. On the other hand, the brain can make fatal mistakes because it is not a perfect machine such as the case of Apollo 13 and how its crew died because the motor did not work properly. Furthermore, Gary went in detail of the similarities of the brain and a kludge which can be seen that has its issues and may seems that the “creators” may rush to finish this complex machine, at the end, it has some problem in its functionality. Gary may sound pessimistic about its research about the brain, but he mentioned both side and its functionality and what is the brain capable to do.
I thought it was interesting how Gary uses the word “kluge” to describe the brain. He goes on to define “kluge” as a solution to a problem and its funny how the brain works because you can think one thing and your heart can be telling you something else but your brain knows the right answer or “solution”. I also found it interesting how he says that if the brain was to be remade than it would work a whole different way today. The way that our brains worked back then and to now is a huge difference and this reading made me realize that.
My Thoughts After Reading Gary Marcus Kludge
Gary Marcus provides an argument that the mind itself is a kluge, and that it is not created by an intelligent designer, god. Gary Marcus defines Kluge as “a clumsy or inelegant — yet surprisingly effective — solution to a problem.” After reading this I became more curious and goggled to know more about kluge and I found out reading an article that it descends from the German word klug which means clever. According to Gary Marcus Kludges are everywhere: human brain, Engineering, Evolution, and also a complicated process of DNA replication. He further says that natural selection has allowed the human mind to develop into a superlatively well engineered functional design, allowing us to think with optimal rationalism. He argues natural selection doesn’t guarantee perfection but only ample modifications on what is already there for those living to adequately survive. In conclusion, according to Gary Marcus defines kludge as a material is a kludge only if some of its properties are the result of evolutionary inertia and those properties involve that material as sub-optimal..