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< The brain is a beautifully engineered get-out-of-the-way machine that       >
< constantly scans the environment for things out of whose way it should      >
< right now get. That's what brains did for several hundred million years ―   >
< and then, just a few million years ago, the mammalian brain learned a new   >
< trick: to predict the timing and location of dangers before they actually   >
< happened.                                                                   >
<                                                                             >
< Our ability to duck that which is not yet coming is one of the brain's most >
< stunning innovations, and we wouldn't have dental floss or 401(k) plans     >
< without it. But this innovation is in the early stages of development. The  >
< application that allows us to respond to visible baseballs is ancient and   >
< reliable, but the add-on utility that allows us to respond to threats that  >
< loom in an unseen future is still in beta testing.                          >
<         ― Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology at Harvard University,    >
<            in an op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times; 6 July, 2006         >
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