Conjecture

A long useless childhood is the price we pay for being configurable, and Part I has the right image for it. Most animals are born like pottery out of a kiln, finished and brittle to the unforeseen, arriving with a genetic understanding of their environment that lets a gazelle run within minutes and a hatchling turtle head for the sea. Humans are born like melted glass ready to be blown into shape by the particular circumstances of our reality, practically useless for years while we learn the operating rules that will guide us for life. And the environment being learned is not only physical: the constellation of ideas, social norms and religious beliefs we are embedded in shapes what we come to see as valuable and good. The cost is enormous parental and social investment; the return is adaptation to a bewildering array of conditions.

Coordination architecture