Are we programmed in C or in FORTRAN?

Why do I like the idea of the g-factor as it relates to intelligence? Well, because it makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint. It makes sense that we would have evolved a few very specific abilities that enable people to learn skills crucial to their survival really, really quickly:

- The ability to judge people relatively accurately fast (there is actually a brain structure that contains some of the most highly myelinated neurons, capable of very fast processing of information. This allows us to get a sense of what we think about others... and get an accurate sense, in a short amount of time)

- The ability to communicate (Broca's area).

I can't think of many other abilities off the top of my head. But the point is that for every one of these very specific abilities, there's a specific brain structure.

Nevertheless, getting back to the evolutionary picture: As our world got more complex and dynamic, it would make sense that whatever evolved the ability to change quickly would be best adapted. Accordingly, most of the cortex is an undifferentiated mass of neurons. These neurons might be very slightly differentiated, however, they can't be too differentiated because (and this is cool) you can teach blind people to see through their tongues:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKd56D2mvN0

In contrast, the idea that we evolved 1000 separate specific abilities doesn't make that much evolutionary sense to me. My present opinion is that it stems from 1. the feeling that we should all be equal 2. an imposition of familiar computer science and mechanical understanding on something mysterious which we really don't understand.


But I realize I have my own prejudices bearing upon reality. I like this guy's (http://www.mega.nu/ampp/rummel/uc.htm) way of putting it:

"Of course, many of our concepts may be a priori, our frameworks may be projected onto phenomena and create order, and our understanding may be partly intuitive. Our knowledge is a dialectical balance between that sensory reality bearing on us, and our reaching out and imposing on this reality structure and framework."