In The Brain from 25,000 Feet, Mark A. Changizi defends a non-reductionist
philosophy and applies it to a variety of problems in the brain sciences. Some
of the key questions answered are as follows. Why do we see visual illusions,
and why are illusions inevitable for any finite-speed vision machine? Why
aren´t brains universal learning machines, and what does the riddle of
induction and its solution have to do with human learning and innateness? The
author tackles such questions as why the brain is folded, and why animals have
as many limbs as they do, explaining how these relate to principles of network
optimality. He describes how most natural language words are vague and then
goes on to explain the connection to the ultimate computational limits on
machines. There is also a fascinating discussion of how animals accommodate
greater behavioral complexity. This book is a must-read for researchers
interested in taking a high-level, non-mechanistic approach to answering age-
old fundamental questions in the brain sciences.
