> In my view, the "wired" metaphor is misleading, no matter how it's finessed.
Metaphors are always limited, but this one isn't much worse than most. The problem is that "hard-wired" vs. whatever is a meaningless simplification absent a consideration of *time*:
The "hardness" of the "wiring" depends on both the level of biological manifestation and the time scale within which malleability is considered. IOW, a lot depends on whether, by "the brain," one means "a certain mass of tissue inside one or another specific individual's head," or, alternatively, "a more-or-less idealized representation of the species-average for certain masses of tissue inside individuals' heads." A lot also depends, in each case, on the time scale being considered. At individual level, within an average human life span, malleability is decidedly limited (greatest when young, increasingly constrained as one ages). At species level, on a span of a few million years, malleability is obviously much greater.
What all this means *politically* is very simple: Everybody should get to work whenever the fuck they want. (H/t Angelus)