Abstract
I use the term “device” to describe our conscious mind because I think consciousness evolved, and because natural selection very much goes in for “clever devices,” “technologies” of various sorts. So if the rest of evolution is anything to go by, that’s the sort of thing our conscious mind will turn out to be. Evolution does not break any laws of Nature that we know of, but it is a great Contriver, able to use physical and chemical effects in ways that may often look like magic.
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© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Cairns-Smith, A.G. (1999). A strange device. In: Secrets of the Mind. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-1510-3_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-1510-3_14
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
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