It is time to ask another stupid question: What is reason actually for? This may seem absurd, but in evolutionary terms it is far from trivial. After all, as far as we know, every other organism on the planet survives perfectly well without such a capacity. It is true that reason seems to have given us remarkable advantages over other animals – and it is unlikely that we could have produced many of our technological and cultural successes without it. But, in evolutionary terms, these must be a by-product, because evolution does not do long-term planning.*
