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Matt Ridley in [1] argues that trade drove the evolution of human intelligence. First he makes the interesting point that intelligence doesn't just evolve - it
by hyperpallium2 5y ago
Matt Ridley in [1] argues that trade drove the evolution of human intelligence.
First he makes the interesting point that intelligence doesn't just evolve - it has to be for something; it must enhance survival or reproduction. So, what is intelligence good for?
He then argues how comparative advantage and division of labour is enormously beneficial. Also points to the pre-existing and unusual division of labour between men and women, as a starting point.
Now, once you have trade, you have all kinds of issues of accounting, cheating etc, which you do better at the cleverer you are - an additional driver for intelligence.
So, according to this theory, trade predates human intelligence.
[1] https://wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Origins_of_Virtue https://wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Origins_of_Virtue
- samatman 5y agoThis has an interesting tie to Nick Szabo's essays on "collectibles", which he paints as proto-money which coevolved with homo sapiens itself. There's more to be found at his blog (http://unenumerated.blogspot.com http://unenumerated.blogspot.com), this essay in particular is a good introduction: https://nakamotoinstitute.org/shelling-out/ https://nakamotoinstitute.org/shelling-out/
- CryptoPunk 5y agoSzabo speculates that proto-money could have increased the human carrying capacity of the environment by up to 10X. It's enlightening to see money in this context: as a fundamental driver of economic coordination that raises total production.