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

162 INTELLIGENT DEVELOPMENT

and in development, function and variation in physiology are best mod-
eled by nonlinear dynamics rather than cue- response reactions. Indeed,
nonlinear dynamical models are being increasingly used as analytical
and conceptual tools in studies of physiology.^19
Remember that a major advantage of nonlinear dynamical systems
over deterministic ones is the rapidity and creativity of response to per-
turbations. So the confl uence of numerous variables is constantly
moving physiology from one attractor state to another. It suggests the
(lifelong) emergence of multiple metastable states for any physiological
function rather than a single steady state. Th at is, these systems hold, in
their developed networks, numerous pos si ble states (attractors) in readi-
ness for changing conditions.
From this perspective, disease or other malfunctioning refl ects a
breakdown of the deeper structure of the system. As Bruce West says, it
involves a new understanding of physiology and life pro cesses. It suggests
that disease and aging are associated with the loss of complexity, or loss
of interactions among component networks, and not with the loss of
simple homeostatic regulation as such.^20
Th e view is supported by, for example, nonlinear dynamical studies
of the physiology of cardiac functions. Variation in heart rate refl ects the
totality of our physical, mental, and emotional state as we interact with
changes around us. Under such real- life conditions, “mode locking” on a
single steady- state would restrict the functional responsiveness of the
organism. Ary Goldberger and colleagues agree that “a defi ning feature
of healthy function is adaptability, the capacity to respond to unpredict-
able stimuli and stresses.” Simple cue- response mechanisms “would great ly
narrow functional responsiveness.”^21 In other words, it is the breakdown
in such deeper, integrative responsiveness to changing conditions that
produces disease states.
Physiology is another evolved intelligent system: so smart, in fact, as
to suggest almost brainlike pro cesses at work. Th is is no doubt why
Charles Darwin attributed brainlike activity to the developing tips of
plant roots: “It is hardly an exaggeration to say that the tip of the radicle
thus endowed, and having the power of directing the movements of the
adjoining parts, acts like the brain of one of the lower animals; the brain

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