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• Classic-Fiction

local equilibria, 261–63, 271

local order, 32

location of the raft, learned by rat,

182

logic gates, 187

London buses, 275, 276

long-term gain, 136

longevity design problem, 280

Louis XIV, 14

love, 3, 137

luck, 82, 296, 299

Lucretius, 331

Lucy, 117

luminance, 156–58

differences, 159, 161

Luther, Martin, 244

Mackie, J. L., 321

macroeconomics, 264–65

fine tuning, 265, 266

magnetic field, 151, 184

major extinctions, 320

making life worth living, 279

maladaptation, 79

Malthus, Thomas, 55

mammals, 12, 103

man made in God’s image, 87–88

Manchester, William, 257

Mao Zedong, 98, 143

markers, 203, 206

silent, in consciousness, 286

Marlowe, Christopher, 307

marriage market, 254

Martians, 230

Marx, Karl, 52, 244, 246

mathematical economics, 124

mathematics, 214, 229

models, 10

maximum entropy, 273

Maxwell, James Clerk, 31

McKay, Ryan, 322

meaning of art, disputes about, 312

meaning of history, 273

meaning of human actions, 245

meaning of life, 2, 94, 277

nonexistence of, 19, 212, 239, 250

means to ends economy in nature, 50

meat, 118–19

megafauna, 198, 205

meme, 302

Mendeleev, Dmitri, 24

meretricious allure of stories, 19

meritocracy, 294–99

Mesopotamian hydraulic empires,

273

mess, evolution as a, 73

Metamorphosis, The (Kafka), 222

metaphors, 14, 56–57

metaphysics, 20–44, 231

Metternich, Prince, 14

Michigan, 76

microchips, 188

Middlemarch (Eliot), 10

Milky Way, 37, 80

Miller, Stanley, 67, 319

Millikan, Ruth, 325

mimicry, 247

mind, see brain

mitochondrial genes, 86

Mlodinow, Leonard, 318

models, 15, 260–61, 266–67

molecular biologists, 216

molecular motion, 30

molecular selection, 59–70

molecules, 65

calcium, potassium, sodium, and chloride, in synapses, 181, 182

complexity, 67

size, 67

Monadology, The (Leibniz), 233

monopolies, 298

Monty Python, 143

moral conviction, 291

moral core, see core morality

moral disagreement, 15, 286–91

moral facts, 95

morality, 18

morally permissible, 97, 295

moral norms, list of, 104

moral of the story, 308–15

moral progress, 259

moral relativism, 97, 102

moral right to inequalities, nonexistence of, 296

moral skepticism, 7

Mother Nature (aka natural selection), 8, 12, 70, 92, 93, 111, 137, 162, 197, 206, 207, 210, 211, 234, 238, 240, 270, 273, 280, 306, 312, 313, 322

as a metaphor, 14, 56–57

mother-recognizing behavior, 183–84

motion picture, vision as, 161

motion-picture illusion, 190–92

motives, 9, 12, 13

movie reviewer, 296

movies, 209

multiverse, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41

muons, 21

muscle movement, 25

Muslims, 105

mutualism, 247

myopia of social science, 243, 267

MySpace, 264

mystery mongering , 37, 241

mythology, 301

Na’vi, 191

Nagel, Thomas, 229, 328

nanotechnology, 59–60

Napoleon, 14, 244

narrative, 9, 10, 13, 285, 308

not to be taken seriously, 310–11

Narratology (Derrida), 305

natural history, 67, 249

naturalism, 166, 218–19, 239–40

natural rights, none, 288

natural selection, 12, 13, 77, 89, 107, 196, 210

irreconcilable with theism, 82–92

not very smart, 109–10

as only game in town, 52, 71, 78, 90, 92

theory of, stated, 54

Nazi Conscience, The (Koontz), 105

Nazi philosopher, 231

Nazis, 105, 143, 287

Neanderthals, 249

Neolithic ancestors, 300, 304

nervous system, 25

neural architecture, 189

neural causes, poor indicators of, 211

neural circuits, 84, 148, 149, 183, 189, 192, 195, 197, 203, 209, 216, 233, 281, 309

neural interpreter, 177–78

neural markers, 192–93

neural states, 189

neurolinguistics, 206

neurology, 19

see also neuroscience

neurons, 183, 184, 192

content of, 197

number of, 148, 218

neuroscience, 17, 154, 162, 206, 213, 226, 228, 230–33, 239, 240, 282

neuroscience of information storage, 180–86

neurotransmitter molecules, 183, 234

neutrinos,