Airheads that we are, we compare the human brain to whatever technology has the gee-whizz factor at that time. The history of neuroscience abounds with analogies.
One likens the brain to a wax writing tablet, another to a hydraulic system of pipes and valves, and another to a telegraph or telephone system. The digital age casts the brain as a computer. Doubtless, this will in turn give way to the brain-as-Internet matrix theory.
All the same, the dominant wetware personal computer concept has resulted in the compelling, if chilling, appropriation of a word which once merely meant hooking up electronic components: hardwiring.
In the sphere of neuroscience and, increasingly, general discussions about the structure of human identity, hardwiring means the deterministic etching of human behaviour in the species' cerebral circuitry.
Human drives such as the capacity to experience sexual attraction are hardwired. When you spot someone you fancy and feel somewhat dizzy, this is not because Cupid has just pierced your heart but because the sighting automatically triggers a rush of naturally produced amphetamines.
In addition to these drives, human capabilities may be hardwired. Take your ability to do mathematics. Sure, the poets among us may proudly claim they have zero mathematical ability. Nevertheless, in all probability they can still count their change for the bus.