我们为何能够思考Why We May Think
我年轻的时候，以为身体存在的意义是保护大脑。现在我意识到正好相反：大脑存在的意义是保护身体。
有两种动物——会动的和不会动的。
不会动的动物依靠稳定、可预测的环境，疯狂繁殖以争夺稀缺资源，并撑过环境的变化。
会动的动物必须适应不断变化的环境，因此需要中枢神经系统。
我们把第一类动物叫做"植物"。
如果你会动，你的环境变化就很大，这意味着你需要一个神经系统来察觉并应对这些变化。所以，你的大脑存在的意义是在身体移动时保护它，而它做到这一点的方式，就是不断尝试预测周围的环境。
停止预测，你还不如当一棵植物，只不过和那棵植物不同，你没有把自己克隆一百万次。你指望靠一次性的繁殖机会、靠有性突变来弥补那一百万次随机突变的机会……而你会输。
所以，继续动起来，保持警觉。
When I was young, I thought the point of the body was to protect the brain. Now I realize it’s the other way around. The brain exists to protect the body.
There are two kinds of animals – those who move and those who don’t.
Animals who don’t move count on a stable and predictable environment and replicate like crazy to compete for scarce resources, and to outlast environmental changes.
Animals who do move have to adapt to ever-changing environments, and therefore need a central nervous system.
We call the first set of animals "plants."
If you move, your environment changes a lot, which means you need a nervous system to detect and respond to those changes. So, your brain exists to protect your body as it moves, and it does this by constantly trying to predict the environment around it.
Stop predicting, and you may as well be a plant, except unlike that plant you haven’t cloned yourself a million times. You were counting on one shot at reproduction with sexual mutation to make up for one million shots with random mutation…and you lose.
So, keep moving, and be alert.