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Sleeping beauties: the mystery of dormant innovations in nature and culture (Ep 104)

Big Biology

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The Power of Metaphors

Stephen Pinker: We use metaphors all the time and that many of them map onto sort of archetypal underlying metaphors. So we say things like, you know, scalding insults, words flowed from a pen, somebody has showered with praise,. And there's this sort of underlying mapping of language and water somehow in our brains. There's a similar sort of Archetypal mapping of time and space, which is super interesting. The way I think about it is that we have a latent potential of circuitry in our brain that's somewhat analogous to the promiscuity of enzymes.

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