BELIEFS AS EMPLOYEES

By way of analogy, let's consider how beliefs in the brain are

like employees at a company. This isn't a perfect analogy, but it'll get us
70% of the way there.[1]

Employees are hired because they have a job to do, i.e., to help the
company accomplish its goals. But employees don't come for free: they
have to earn their keep by being useful. So if an employee does his job
well, he'll be kept around, whereas if he does it poorly — or makes
other kinds of trouble, like friction with his coworkers — he'll have to
be let go.

Similarly, we can think about beliefs as ideas that have been "hired" by
the brain. And we hire them because they have a "job" to do, which is
to provide accurate information about the world.[2] We need to know
where the lions hang out (so we can avoid them), which plants are
edible or poisonous (so we can eat the right ones), and who's
romantically available (so we know whom to flirt with). The closer our
beliefs hew to reality, the better actions we'll be able to take, leading
ultimately to survival and reproductive success. That's our "bottom
line," and that's what determines whether our beliefs are serving us
well. If a belief performs poorly — by inaccurately modeling the world,
say, and thereby leading us astray — then it needs to be let go.

I hope none of this is controversial. But here's where the analog