Starting from Darwin and Turing, Read Montague’s Why Choose This Book? relates recent research on how minds make decisions. The critical element is a valuation mechanism that can assign weights to various alternatives, and do so cheaply. Why, indeed, does a computer heat up so much while our own more complex brains are barely warm?

The book deals with an interesting topic, but I felt that it was a slow read. I would have liked the chapters to feel more coherent and pull this lay person along in a more systematic and fast-paced manner.