Alison
Gopnik is a psychologist and the author of an acclaimed book, The Philosophical Baby: What Children's
Minds Tell Us about Truth, Love & the Meaning of Life (plus a few other
books on how babies think). Two years ago she also gave a TED talk dramatizing
some of her own findings and those of fellow child psychologists. In much of
the talk, she explains (with some striking examples) how babies and small
children are much cleverer that they are usually given credit for, to the point
of engaging in some protoscientific thinking (with a penchant for hypothesis
testing, etc.). At some point, though, she makes an even bolder claim. She says
babies and children are, in fact, even more conscious than adults. And she
offers a simple neuroscientific explanation for this counterintuitive juvenile
advantage.
