What tool would you put in your cognitive toolkit?

The Edge annual question and its answers are out. This year, John Brockman asked, "What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit?" He got 158 people to send in answers.

I was one of them. If you like my answer, you might also like Sean Carroll's and Carl Zimmer's — we seem to have made similar points. Carl has a thread on the topic, and so does Sean: I think I like his original title of dysteleological physicalism better, never mind Carl's post deploring jargon.

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Last week I linked to Carl Zimmer's take down of Casey Luskin.
Imagine a book I would write. On viruses (what else?). Now, instead of it sounding like it was written by a chimpanzee who learned English from watching 'Waynes World' and 'Waynes World 2' on a loop + 4chan, imagine it was written by an articulate, science-literate human.
Everyone has a bad Monday every now and then, right? Here's one for you: at 7a.m. spilled an entire cappuccino on my laptop and at 7p.m. I hit some black ice on the highway and rolled (and totaled) my truck. That is what I call a rough Monday...but what a banner, no?
I knew I'd love Carl's Microcosm for the delicious irony of using a mere "germ" to illustrate