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 D371 English Composition I, SPR2015
Official site for ENG1101 D371
Mohammad A. Diakite 02/16/15
According to Marcus Gary, “ Kludge” is a weird idea that works to solve a problem. It describes how the mind is impressive, but it can be faulty. We have the smartest brain on earth; however, it can be dysfunctional. Back in history, according to Marcus Gary, people were satisfied with inventions up to a certain point, without knowing that they can be better.
Marcus Gary used more example than Oshea did. He showed how we can become better using our brain, while Oshea showed us how the brain is perfect.
In the reading “Kludge” by Marcus Gary, a kludge is referred to as clumsy or inelegant but however can be the solution to a problem. The reading proves that the mind works in mysterious ways and we sometimes tend to underestimate it. In comparison, to Michael O’Shea “The Brain” it tells you how your mind has its faults but it always find a way to overcome an obstacle. It is always finding new ways to find the solution to a problem.
While reading the Kluge by Marcus Gary, I’ve notice that his statement about the brain and what he thinks of it is a little different to how Michael O’shea thinks of the brain. In Michael O’shea’s chapter 1 of “The Brain”, Michael makes the brain seem like as if it should be on a pedestal saying how it’s great and it’s amazing, in which it is but in the Kluge, Marcus consider that we should not really overly honor the brain too much and that our minds are not as elegantly designed as we may believe. The imperfections result from past experiences which processes that often continues to pile up new systems on top of old ones and that doesn’t work well together.
His style of writing compared to Oshea’s is more negative on how the brain and human nature works. Although he recognizes there are still many things the brain can do, he also recognizes that it, like everything else living and breathing, has its flaws. Instead, he recognizes where we are as a species and where it would be ideal to be. As human nature, it is in a trial and error bases. If it doesn’t work, it is discarded, and if it works, it is kept and passes around despite its many kinks. It tells us how far we have come as a species in other to be where we’re at. Kludges themselves can be made based on different scenarios. Either as a joke, out of character, etc. As per all of evolution, some kludges can benefit human nature. Others are harmful. The ones that benefit will be the ones that stay, while the ones that are harmful will be discarded. The document focuses on evolutionary psychology, he thinks of how the brain has changed. It has taken time in order to get where it is now and is still constantly changing and evolving.
Gary Marcus’ Kluge writing is highly critical of the brain compared to O’Shea’s high praise of the brain. Gary goes on to say that brain didn’t get to where it is now without the trials and errors from the past. Inventions in the past wouldn’t be further advanced and improved until a lot of time passed by. He cites the failure of Co2 filters of the lunar module Apollo 13. He explains how there wasn’t a space shuttle to be able to send a replacement filter up to the crew. Meanwhile O’shea is putting the brain on a pedest.
In the reading by Gary Marcus, he talks about the faults of our mind and actions. He called those mistakes “Kludge”, criticizing human nature. For example, in the chapter, he talks about the human spine, questions it’s use and wonders why it was created. He suggests instead that the human’s weight should be distributed across four equal cross-braced columns. In comparison to Michael O’Shea’s reading, “Kludge” is more focused on negativity while “The Brain” is more focused on the connections between our mind, brain, and body, and human behavior. O’Shea is more optimistic in his reading while Marcus is pessimistic about the mind, body and human behavior in “Kludge”.
In the reading ” Kludge” , our minds has many flaws and is compared to a “kluge”. As humans we build things to be more efficient in certain areas that needs enhancing, the reading makes a mockery of this concept that its actually making us lazier. It has many faults but it evolves to conditions it is put stressed in. Marcus’ writing compared to O’Shea’s is 2 different writing styles. Marcus’ was more criticizing than O’shea and how we shouldn’t praise the brain as much as we would. O’shea praises the brain and throws information right to the reader while making it eccentric.
Was William Shakespeare right when you said that all humans were Noble? I wouldn’t really agree with that. It all depends on the person. As stated in the reading, humans think quantitively.
Humans are normally decisive.The decisiveness if a person can be perceived by how they speak.Human speech, provided that they are well-versed in that language, is normally crisp and relatively understandable. Humans tend to make plans for the future, we are the only species on earth smart enough to do this, but humans tend to see ” shiny things ” i.e. short-term gratification. What people never realize is that buying something in the store or doing something against your long-term plan is not the way to happiness. I hypothesize that you’d probably be happier if you just stuck to plan. As with all species, we his humans have certain problems. The solutions to these problems can be described as somewhat inelegant or put together rather hastily, but work nonetheless. This is what Gary Marcus calls a “kluge”. Why do humans think like this? Take for example Apollo 13, the carbon dioxide filters failed, so a new filter was devised out of materials available to the people on the spaceship. Sometimes a thought can save a life, other times not as much. It all depends on the context of the thought. The word kluge has a possibility of being pronounced incorrectly. It rhymes with huge and is said to be derived from the ancient Scottish word for an outhouse. A kluge is not normally thought through, it is designed to solve a problem in the interim. When humans take a moment and think, our minds can do incredible things. The human mind itself when given enough time, can draw very elaborate plans. People never realize exactly how much mental capacity they have. A person who does their entire life without knowing this very important figure. The human species has been proven to be an evolution. How come evolution is not as smart as some of the engineers, evolution doesn’t care about money or limiting factors, it does what is appropriate for the environment that the person or other living thing is in. The human body has incredible senses, mental capacity and other positives. How can humans better themselves mentally?
We still have a lot to learn about the brain and Gary Marcus’s Kluge kind of made me realized that. It’s weird and mysterious in a way on how it works but we lack the knowledge to keep up with it and understand it. Compared to Michael O’Shea’s “The Brain”, I would agree with Michael because he explains how the brain functions and how it’s able to overcome situations that we face. Regarding to Gary Marcus, as I read the first chapter I got a negative feeling on how he described the brain and said we shouldn’t honor the brain so much. But the brain is the center of our thoughts, or what we’re going to do next, or any action we might take. Even sitting down writing this piece on the readings, my brain is doing all the work. What I should right next, what I feel is right? Although I felt Gary Marcus statement was negative if we think about it he convinces us to think deeper to the idea he is trying to display and tell us how much more we can do.
O’shea’s book the kludge is a interesting read. You can tell he feels passionate towards the idea that the brain , although is an amazing thing, is far from perfect. Contrary to the work of the author of “The Brain” where he is constantly admiring the human mind saying how amazing it is. The kludge is a description of the human brain which I believe is actually an accurate description of the brain. A kludge is an invention that is clumsy and not too elegant but surprisingly works. The word stems from mechanics since they are known to make many kludges as they work to fix many of their problems. Oshea gives more than enough examples during the read to help even the most simplest readers to better understand his idea. This reading while boring to som,e is actually very informative and gives a new perspective on how the brain works and is a good introduction to those people who want to learn more about the brain.
In the Marcus Gary’s “Kludge,” one most know what the definition of kludge is to grab Gary’s aspect of the brain. So what is a kludge?! Kludge is a term used when you’re describing an unrefined or ill shaped solution to a problem which is surprisingly useful. Gary goes on, in great detail, how the brain is a kludge. To support his opinion, he focuses heavily on science. In comparing Gary’s reading to O’shea’s, Gary came across as being critical of the mind as oppose to O’shea who was fascinated by it. Gary questioned any psychologist or even a neuroscience theory of the brain and its function. Overall, Gary was giving us an approach of thinking to the history of evolution one might not have thought before to help develop ourselves.