The genome is not the only information highway used to transmit design from one organism to another:
culture or "tradition" is another, and it has developed in many species. In our species, this highway has
become an information superhighway. Why? What kinds of replication are possible in human culture that are
not possible in animal culture? (This question will deal with some of the issues raised in Bence Nánay's talk,
"Genes, Memes, and Photocopied Pages" on 6 June.) What features of our evolved brains might be genetic
responses to selective pressures that arise with culture, and what features might be adaptations more directly
shaped by culture thanks to phenotypic plasticity?

Director, Center for Cognitive Studies, Tufts University.
Born in 1942. 1963 BA, Harvard University, cum laude; 1965 DPhil, Oxford; university professor, Tufts
University; memberships: American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Association of University
Professors, American Philosophical Association (President, Eastern Division, 2000), Cognitive Science
Society, Council for Philosophical Studies (1980–1984), Society for Philosophy and Psychology (President,
1980–1981); editorial: Associate Editor, Behavioral and Brain Sciences and Journal of Cognitive
Neuroscience; Editorial Board: Cognitive Science, Consciousness and Cognition: An International Journal;
Journal of Consciousness Studies; Perception Biology and Philosophy; Brain and Mind.

Selected Publications:
Content and Consciousness (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969).
Brainstorms: Philosophical Essays on Mind and Psychology (1978).
with Douglas Hofstadter (eds), The Mind's I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul
(New York: Basic Books, 1981).
Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting (MIT Press, 1984).
The Intentional Stance (MIT Press, 1987).
Consciousness Explained (Little, Brown, 1991).
Darwin's Dangerous Idea (Simon and Schuster, 1995).
Kinds of Minds (New York: Basic Books, 1996).
Brainchildren: Essays on Designing Minds (MIT Press and Penguin, 1998).
Az intencionalitás filozófiája [Philosophy of intentionality] (Budapest: Osiris Kiadó, 1998), essays translated
into Hungarian by Csaba Pléh.

Professor Dennett will give his inaugural lecture entitled Explaining the 'magic of consciousness' at the
Hungarian Academy of Sciences on June 19, 2002, at 3 p.m.
Site : Roosevelt tér, the Main Building of the Academy, Felolvasó Terem , I. emelet

Csaba Pleh, Professor of Psychology
Budapest U. of Technology and Economics, Center for Cognitive Science
Presently at Collegium Budapest, Budapest, Szentharomsag u 2 H-1014
cspleh@ colbud.hu, T: 3612248323, Fax: 3612248310 Mobile: (06)303500431