Editing Kludge (section)

=== Evolutionary neuroscience ===
{{see also|Evolutionary baggage}}
The ''kludge'' or ''kluge'' metaphor has been adapted in fields such as [[evolutionary neuroscience]], particularly in reference to the [[human brain]].

The neuroscientist [[David J. Linden|David Linden]] discusses how [[intelligent design]] proponents have misconstrued brain anatomy:<ref>{{cite book |last=Linden |first=David J. |title=The Accidental Mind: How Brain Evolution Has Given Us Love, Memory, Dreams, and God |publisher=Belknap Press |year=2007 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/accidentalmind0000lind/page/245 245–246] |isbn=978-0-674-02478-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/accidentalmind0000lind/page/245}}</ref>

{{blockquote|The transcendent aspects of our human experience, the things that touch our emotional and cognitive core, were not given to us by a Great Engineer. These are not the latest design features of an impeccably crafted brain. Rather, at every turn, brain design has been a kludge, a workaround, a jumble, a pastiche. The things we hold highest in our human experience (love, memory, dreams, and a predisposition for religious thought) result from a particular agglomeration of ad hoc solutions that have been piled on through millions of years of evolution history. It's not that we have fundamentally human thoughts and feelings {{em|despite}} the kludgy design of the brain as molded by the twists and turns of evolutionary history. Rather, we have them precisely {{em|because}} of that history.}}

The research psychologist [[Gary Marcus]]'s book ''[[Kluge (book)|Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind]]'' compares evolutionary kluges with engineering ones like [[manifold vacuum]]-powered [[windshield wipers]]&nbsp;– when accelerating or driving uphill, "Your wipers slowed to a crawl, or even stopped working altogether." Marcus described a biological kluge:<ref>{{cite book |last=Marcus |first=Gary |title=Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Co. |year=2008 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/klugehaphazardco00marc/page/4 4–5] |isbn=978-0-618-87964-9 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/klugehaphazardco00marc/page/4}}</ref>

{{blockquote|For instance, the vertebrate eye's [[retina]] that is installed backward, facing the back of the head rather than the front. As a result, all kinds of stuff gets in its way, including a bunch of wiring that passes through the eye and leaves us with a pair of [[Blind spot (vision)|blind spot]]s, one in each eye.}}