work_id,theme,provenance,created_at,text,reviewed_on,id,comments,metaphor,dictionary,updated_at,context
6685,"",Reading,2010-03-11 03:49:04 UTC,"Brains have long been compared to the most advanced existing technology--including, at one point, telephone switchboards. Today people talk about brains as if they were a sort of biological computer, with pink mushy “hardware” and “software” generated by life experiences.",2011-09-02,17740,"","""Brains have long been compared to the most advanced existing technology--including, at one point, telephone switchboards.""","",2011-09-02 16:19:30 UTC,""
6685,"",Reading,2010-03-11 03:50:29 UTC,"Brains have long been compared to the most advanced existing technology--including, at one point, telephone switchboards. Today people talk about brains as if they were a sort of biological computer, with pink mushy “hardware” and “software” generated by life experiences.",,17741,"","""Today people talk about brains as if they were a sort of biological computer, with pink mushy 'hardware' and 'software' generated by life experiences.""","",2011-09-02 16:19:49 UTC,""
6685,"",Reading,2010-03-11 03:52:01 UTC,"However, any comparison with computers misses a messy truth. Because the brain arose through natural selection, it contains layers of systems that arose for one function and then were adopted for another, even though they don’t work perfectly. An engineer with time to get it right would have started over, but it’s easier for evolution to adapt an old system to a new purpose than to come up with an entirely new structure. Our colleague David Linden has compared the evolutionary history of the brain to the task of building a modern car by adding parts to a 1925 Model T that never stops running. As a result, brains differ from computers in many ways, from their highly efficient use of energy to their tremendous adaptability.",,17742,"","""Our colleague David Linden has compared the evolutionary history of the brain to the task of building a modern car by adding parts to a 1925 Model T that never stops running.""","",2010-03-11 03:52:01 UTC,""
6685,"",Reading,2010-03-11 03:54:09 UTC,"Compare this with your brain, which uses about 12 watts, an amount that supports not only memory but all your thought processes. This is less than the energy consumed by a typical refrigerator light, and half the typical needs of a laptop computer. Cutting power consumption by half while increasing computing power many times over is a pretty challenging design standard. As smart as we are, in this sense we are all dim bulbs.",,17743,"","""As smart as we are, in this sense we are all dim bulbs.""","",2010-03-11 03:54:09 UTC,""
6685,"",Reading,2010-03-11 03:56:24 UTC,"Still, engineers could learn a thing or two from brain strategies. For example, even the most advanced computers have difficulty telling a dog from a cat, something that can be done at a glance by a toddler — or a cat. We use emotions, the brain’s steersman, to assign value to our experiences and to future possibilities, often allowing us to evaluate potential outcomes efficiently and rapidly when information is uncertain. In general, we bring an extraordinary amount of background information to bear on seemingly simple tasks, allowing us to make inferences that are difficult for machines.",,17744,"Note, reverses Pope's metaphor? ","""We use emotions, the brain's steersman, to assign value to our experiences and to future possibilities, often allowing us to evaluate potential outcomes efficiently and rapidly when information is uncertain.""","",2010-03-11 03:56:24 UTC,""