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Cards on the Table

from Rapsode by Baba Brinkman

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about

The human mind is built from a collection of neural circuits that each evolved to accomplish a specific cognitive task. These "Evolved Psychological Adaptations" make up the building blocks of human nature and human experience, and we can (and should) study them scientifically to enhance human knowledge and wellbeing.

lyrics

All right, cards on the table
Let’s go… let’s show

What up bird, how you know how to nest-build?
How to find a mate and food, and when to just chill?
It’s like your brain has evolved to behave
In a way that translates into hatched eggs
And that’s great, pass those genes on
Natural selection, yup, that old theme song
The tune you march to, from tuna to shark tooth
Darwin's tune, beaver to carp to moose
But not you, sitting on a barstool
Coveting a cool car at a liberal arts school?
Not you? Your brain is made of what? Stardust?
Sawdust? No biology in your startup?
Not true? Why? ‘Cause you don’t want it to be true
That the center of the universe is not you
Cards on the tabletop, y’all, it's all true
You have a brain that evolved as a kluge
No plan, no endgame, just a huge
Box of neurological tools, what they all do?!
Call it a “module” a “circuit” or “proclivity"
Every tool makes us behave species-typically

Put your cards on the table if you wanna play
Primates with evolved brains
I put mine on the table all the time
Adapted mind in the spotlight

Put your cards down now show us your hand
Make no claims without evidence
Cards on the table, let’s go!
Place bets on what the next card’s gonna show

Take a jar out of the fridge with rust
On the rim, give the lid a twist… puff
Listen to the hiss, ugh, give it a sniff, bleugh
What you’re feelin’ is commonly known as ‘disgust’
Evolved to prevent the vectors of pathogens
From coming in contact with our skin
In the world that our ancestors inhabited
Disgust was useful and adaptive
So what evokes it? What’s the process?
What’s the neural activation of grossness?
How does a trigger get molded by culture?
And does it predict how political votes work?
Can disgust make you xenophobic?
And only wanna be social with your own kin?
Which genes in developmental growth sets
A human brain up with this emotion?

Put your cards on the table if you wanna play
Primates with evolved brains
I put mine on the table all the time
Adapted mind in the spotlight

Put your cards down now show us your hand
Make no claims without evidence
Cards on the table, let’s go!
Place bets on what the next card’s gonna show

Evolved Psychological Adaptations
Let me just break that down to the basics
Foraging optimization, depression when fruitless
Success brings euphoric moods in
Color vision, hunger, incest avoidance
Nausea after ingesting poisons
Preferences for symmetrical faces
Anti-predator directed gazes
EPAs, wariness around snakes
Willingness to risk physical pain
Males and females having different ways
Of assessing traits when selecting mates
If only there existed a digital space
Where the data sets could collect in one place!
Edited by experts who investigate
Each respective scientific evidence-base
Is it an adaptation? What’s the case against?
Every genetic, theoretic, and brain scan test
Updated and aggregated and then fed
Into a dossier of human nature’s bits

Put your cards on the table if you wanna play
Primates with evolved brains
I put mine on the table all the time
Adapted mind in the spotlight

Put your cards down now show us your hand
Make no claims without evidence
Cards on the table, let’s go!
Place bets on what the next card’s gonna show

credits

from Rapsode, released May 15, 2023
Lyrics by Baba Brinkman
Music by Mr. Simmonds
Additional Vocals by Aaron Ross

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Baba Brinkman New York, New York

Science rapper and inventor of several novel hip-hop variants. Canadian transplant to New York. Pathological optimist.

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