Genes, Brains, and Human Potential The Science and Ideology of Intelligence

REAL GENES, REAL INTELLIGENCE 113

Figure 4.2 is a mock-up of typical changes in daily temperature over
time, dependent upon season (caused by the motion of the earth around
the sun). All living things on earth have assimilated such a day- night
pattern in their physiological and metabolic systems. But they also have
to regularly retune it as the pattern changes with the seasons— a kind of
learning. Th ere is a correlation between two variables (temperature and
daylight) which living systems have assimilated. But the correlation is
conditioned by another variable (time of year, or season). By assimilating
that deeper structure, temperature or light intensity can be more accu-
rately predicted. So plants can get their photosynthetic machinery to-
gether, with their leaves ready lift ed, as they do, just prior to the onset of
dawn— but not in winter, when the lack of strong enough light intensity
makes the eff ort pointless. In animals, sensory receptors, digestive sys-
tems, limb muscles, and so on get primed in advance of dawn. In some
animals, over a longer term, coat thickness and coloration may change,
and hibernation may occur.
Here is an example at another— more social— level. Imagine some for-
mation dance— a reel, or a set in a square dance. Corresponding move-
ments of members follows a formation changing over space and time but
adapted to a background tune (the “environment”). Th e dancers are fol-
lowing a set of rules (or “grammar”) that describes the relations between
members over space and time, making the formation totally predictable.
Now imagine the background tune changes, from a 4/4 to a 3/4 rhythm,

FIGURE 4.2

Schematic illustrating day- night temperature changes changing with (in this case,

rather short) seasons.

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