Vegetables with a few reflexes

Child Psychology: A New Look Inside Babies' Minds

TIME: You say that for most of history, babies were seen as "vegetables with a few reflexes." What's going on in a baby's mind that we didn't appreciate before?
Gopnik: If you just casually look at a baby, it doesn't look like there's very much going on there, but they know more and learn more than we would ever have thought. Every single minute is incredibly full of thought and novelty. It's easy as adults to take for granted everything it took to arrive at the state where we are.

You say babies are more imaginative and even more conscious than adults.
They take in much more information from different sources than adults do and work very hard to make sense of that information. It's one reason we think babies sleep so much - they're doing much harder work than grown-ups are. They are the R&D department of the human species.

How about moral development? One of the great philosophical debates is whether people are born with an innate sense of right and wrong or whether it develops over time. Does your research shed light on that question?
Yes, there's quite clearly an innate basis for our moral sentiments. The youngest children have a great capacity for empathy and altruism. There's a recent study that shows even 14-month-olds will climb across a bunch of cushions and go across a room to give you a pen if you drop one. And we know babies imitate facial expressions and are sensitive to emotions; there seems to be a very strong connection with other people early on. It is a very hopeful finding.

and

Would-Be Ford Assassin 'Squeaky' Fromme Released

and also

Killer Drones to Get Sound System: "Killing was our business, and the PSYOP tapes helped make business damn good."

Your Predator drone has all the latest gear, including communications, laser target designator, day and night cameras and, of course, Hellfire missiles. But, according to Special Operations Command, it still needs that essential finishing touch: the latest sound system. The command is setting out to correct this, providing speakers not just for drones but also for plenty of other applications, in a new high-tech loudspeaker program.