Science, scientists, ideas. Godfri-Smith P., Wright R., Efroimson V.P.

“Alien Reason” Godfri-Smith Peter

Peter Godfri-Smith (b. 1965)-Australian marine biologist and philosopher of science, professor of the University of Sydney. His bestseller “other minds” made a real revolution in our understanding of the cephalopods of mollusks: according to the author, these animals are an “alternative experiment of evolution to create highly developed intelligence”. The author, an experienced scuba diver, constantly observing octopus and karakatits in their natural habitat, is convinced that these organisms infinitely distant from us are demonstrated by outstanding cognitive abilities and an amazingly high level of mental complexity.

“Moral animal” Wright Robert < /p>

a person is an animal endowed with reason - it is difficult to argue with this fact. At the same time, it is generally accepted that in a civilized society a reasonable beginning prevails over the animal. But is it really so? What is human morality that has undergone radical changes for many centuries? How are altruism and the struggle for survival, the sexual revolution and the theory of the evolution of Darwin? Honor, conscience, friendship, nobility - are all this really only the words that the bare instinct is hidden?

Analyzing these questions and wittyly using the biography of Charles Darwin and his “Origin of Vyes” as an example and France's famous work De Valya “Politics of Shimpanze”, Robert Wright comes to very curious conclusions...

“genetics of genius” Efroimson Vladimir Pavlovich

high mental activity, especially in its most striking manifestation - genius, for millennia attracted the attention of people. The works and biographical studies devoted to genius and geniuses are innumerable, but almost all of them consider genius as something irrational, not amenable to analysis and explanation.

Having studied and summarize a huge number of biographical data and research in the field of history, psychology and medicine , Vladimir Efroimson tried to identify the mechanisms of stimulation of intelligence, sources of outstanding giftedness and the conditions in which it manifests itself and is revealed in its entirety. Based on the analysis, he concluded that the existence of gigantic reserve capabilities of the brain of an ordinary, non -abnormal person designated the ways that, in his opinion, will put the “production” of geniuses on the stream and allow humanity to reach a qualitatively new level of intellectual and spiritual development.