# Obsolete and Inappropriate Metaphors by Robert Provine > “My response to the inquiry about questions that are no longer asked is to reframe it and suggest instead a common class of missing questions, those associated with obsolete and inappropriate metaphors. Metaphor is a powerful cognitive tool, which, like all models, clarifies thinking when appropriate, but constrains it when inappropriate. Science is full of them. My professional specialties of neuroscience and biopsychology has mind/brain metaphors ranging from Locke's ancient blank slate (tabula rasa), to the more technologically advanced switchboard, and the metaphor de jour, the computer. None do justice to the brain as a soggy lump of wetware, but linger as cognitive/linguistic models. Natural selection in the realm of metaphors is slow and imperfect. Witness the reference to DNA as a "blueprint" for an organism, when Dawkins' "recipe" metaphor more accurately reflects DNA's incoding of instructions for organismic assembly.” > **— Robert Provine**, *2001, Edge Annual Question, “What Questions Have Disappeared?”* ## Sources and Context - **Direct Edge response and surrounding essay:** [Obsolete and Inappropriate Metaphors](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/12028) — Edge published this exact passage in its 2001 Annual Question collection, *WHAT QUESTIONS HAVE DISAPPEARED?*. The response page preserves the surrounding argument and qualifications. - **Complete local collection index:** [[research/Edge 2001 Full Quotation Curation - Disappeared Questions|Edge 2001 Full Quotation Curation - Disappeared Questions]] — retained source-first record for the complete response cohort and this passage's promotion status. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Neurotech|Neurotech]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]] - **Article:** [[articles/Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer|Consciousness Mapping and Transfer]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Organic-Synthetic Brain Atlas|Organic-Synthetic Brain Atlas]] - **Article:** [[articles/2026 Annual Report on Brain-Computer Interfaces|2026 BCI Report]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Next Interface Layer|Next Interface Layer]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Neural Interfaces and Continuity Architecture|Neural Interfaces and Continuity Architecture]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Neural Interfaces and Continuity Architecture|Neural Interfaces and Continuity Architecture]] - [[wiki/Natural Selection|Natural Selection]] - [[wiki/Darwinian Evolution|Darwinian Evolution]] - [[wiki/Evolutionary Theory|Evolutionary Theory]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “My response to the inquiry about questions that are no longer asked is to reframe it and suggest instead a common class of missing questions, those associated with obsolete and inappropriate metaphors. Metaphor is a powerful cognitive tool, which, like all models, clarifies thinking when appropriate, but constrains it when inappropriate. Science is full of them. My professional specialties of neuroscience and biopsychology has mind/brain metaphors ranging from Locke's ancient blank slate (tabula rasa), to the more technologically advanced switchboard, and the metaphor de jour, the computer. None do justice to the brain as a soggy lump of wetware, but linger as cognitive/linguistic models. Natural selection in the realm of metaphors is slow and imperfect. Witness the reference to DNA as a "blueprint" for an organism, when Dawkins' "recipe" metaphor more accurately reflects DNA's incoding of instructions for organismic assembly.” — Robert Provine, 2001, Edge Annual Question, “What Questions Have Disappeared?” https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-robert-provine-obsolete-inappropriate-metaphors ```