hmmm. ..I guess that article went over your head, or over your brain as it
were
maybe this will help
http://groups.google.com/group/HAPLIF-BLOGGING_Deutsch/msg/00ff4074548d4578?hl=e...
you state the problem well in your last sentence: ego means a lot of
different things to different people, and so I suggest that as it is not a
scientifically measurable something (which is what I said in the previous
post when I said that maybe some day they may measure but haven't come up
with a measure yet)
with scientifically measurable and reproducible results, ego isn't a thing
that is subject to verifiable measurement as to its input in the
evolutionary process (and as some willl argue that evolution or some parts
of the theory are less than a scientifically verifiable proposition you got
nothing but turtles all the way down)
when debating ego in this way, we might as well be debating religion and the
function of the soul.
Pinker is very very good with language, not so good with the other stuff,
especially as he works a bit too hard to justify the politics of his stuff
rather than sticking to the science of his stuff
mk5000
"Said steam, steam, a hundred bad dreams
Going up to Harlem with a pistol in his jeans
A fifty-dollar bill inside a palladin's hat
And nobody's sure where Mr. Knickerbocker's at"--Tom Waits, Clap Hands