Genome and Mind

Here is an interesting new article by Stephen Pinker in this week's NY Times Magazine.

I haven't finished reading the article yet, I'm about 2/3 of the way through, but it's an interesting (though a bit disorganized) review.

It goes into some detail about the strength of genetics in determining certain aspects of what people will be like (this is in contrast to environmental factors), and it also takes into account unmeasurable things -- i.e. variability that cannot be accounted for by either genetics or environment (insofar as we can study these things).

It certainly does NOT make an argument for genetic determinism, especially since we can make authentic choices for ourselves in ignorance of what our genes say.

The article does give a decent review of how limited genetics is as a predictor of outcomes, not to mention the fact that genetic screening generally only looks at an infinitesimal proportion of our genome.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/magazine/11Genome-t.html