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> some pressure for life to develop different types of intelligence based on their biology and environment. I always wonder what was the pressure for humans to
by hyperpallium 7y ago
> some pressure for life to develop different types of intelligence based on their biology and environment.
I always wonder what was the pressure for humans to develop recursive language, and the cultural explosion about 70,000 years ago.
And in the millions of years before that, the pressure to rapidly dwvelop larger brains. Other animals didn't seem to do that (though, we probanly haven't tracked the development of other animals brain-sizes over such time spans as assiduously as our own).
- Madmallard 7y agoEverything is recursive anyway. I don't think it is a special property of our language.
- WalterBright 7y agoThe pressure may have been having hands. It's amazing all the things we can do with our hands.
- hyperpallium 7y agoInteresting. Could have opened possibilies for intelligence to have utility. BTW parrots are quite dextrous with their feet and tongue.
- WalterBright 7y agoUnfortunately for parrots, they cannot evolve larger brains without giving up flying. I suspect that birds in general have very optimized brains because of the weight constraints.
- hyperpallium 7y agoThough flightlessness is an option: emu, penguin, dodo, even a parrot (New Zealand Kakapo).
- WalterBright 7y agoUnsurprisingly, those evolved where they had fewer predators they needed to fly away from.
- teslaberry 7y agoWe probably ate the smartest animals. We know we ate mamoths to extinction. We ate a lot of whales. It stands to reason we ate other animals of karger physical bodyband brain size. We ate some ostrich species. Shame