Steven Pinker -- How the Mind Works - Hampshire High Italian ...

Revenge of the Nerds 175THE BLIND PROGRAMMERWhy did brains evolve to start with? The answer lies in the value of information,which brains have been designed to process.Every time you buy a newspaper, you are paying for information. Economictheorists have explained why you should: information confers a benefitthat is worth paying for. Life is a choice among gambles. One turns leftor right at the fork in the road, stays with Rick or leaves with Victor, knowingthat neither choice guarantees fortune or happiness; the best one cando is play the odds. Stripped to its essentials, every decision in lifeamounts to choosing which lottery ticket to buy. Say a ticket costs $ 1.00and offers a one-in-four chance of winning $10.00. On average, you willnet $1.50 per play ($10.00 divided by 4 equals $2.50, minus $1.00 for theticket). The other ticket costs $ 1.00 and offers a one-in-five chance of winning$12.00. On average, you will net $1.40 per play The two kinds oftickets come in equal numbers, and neither has the odds or winningsmarked on it. How much should you pay for someone to tell you which iswhich: 1 You should pay up to four cents. With no information, you wouldhave to choose at random, and you could expect to make $1.45 on average($1.50 half the time, $1.40 half the time). If you knew which had the betteraverage payoff, you would make an average of $1.50 each play, so evenif you paid four cents you would be ahead by one cent each play.Most organisms don't buy lottery tickets, but they all choose betweengambles every time their bodies can move in more than one way. Theyshould be willing to "pay" for information—in tissue, energy, and time—ifthe cost is lower than the expected payoff in food, safety, mating opportunities,and other resources, all ultimately valuated in the expected numberof surviving offspring. In multicellular animals the information isgathered and translated into profitable decisions by the nervous system.Often, more information brings a greater reward and earns back itsextra cost. If a treasure chest has been buried somewhere in your neighborhood,the single bit of information that locates it in the north or thesouth half is helpful, because it cuts your digging time in half. A second bitthat told you which quadrant it was in would be even more useful, and soon. The more digits there are in the coordinates, the less time you willwaste digging fruitlessly, so you should be willing to pay for more bits, up to