. >> there is a lovely book by peter godfrey smith, darwinian populations and natural selection. that is the title, where he introduces some elegant diagrams which let you see in addition to the pure cases of natural selection, the sort of parade cases of natural selection, there are lots of processes which are like natural selection in one or two or three features but are not classic cases. the development of the nervous system in the individual brain is very much a matter of generation, lots of extra neurons which compete and only some of them get to survive and populate the region and the rest are absorbed and lead to another generation. the very building of a brain is the clause i evolutionary process. once you built a brain, the learning in the brain is another clause i evolutionary process. there has been no dearth of theories of evolution in the brain hypotheses over the last 50 years or so. i think it is fair to say it is the only non miraculous, non question begging model we have of how a nervous system can start in one state and improve itself through learning from taki