The invention of neural plasticity, which is encoded by the genome, lets each of us transcend our genome. We emerge, character like, from the vague alphabet of our text. Of course, to accept the freedom inherent in the human brain—to know that the individual is not genetically predestined—is also to accept the fact that we have no single solutions. Every day each one of us is given the gift of new neurons and plastic cortical cells; only we can decide what our brains will become.
