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"But one may well ask: Why did humans become smarter all of a sudden? What was the advantage of having a large brain ... To hunt small elusive animals humans ha

"But one may well ask: Why did humans become smarter all of a sudden? What was the advantage of having a large brain ... To hunt small elusive animals humans had to become smarter, faster, more focused, more observant, and more collaborative." So why didn't the big cats, larger insects, dogs/wolves, crocs n that, let alone bloody great 'awks 'n that etc become ... "smarter" for the same reasons? "Just so" stories are lovely to read and so easy to digest and are just so much bollocks! "And they had to choose their prey carefully, with preference for high fat content, to ensure a sufficient energetic return" Total and utter bollocks: Predators pick off the easiest targets - sick, infirm or inattentive prey. There is absolutely no way they weight up calorific value. You grab what you can and try to survive. I suggest that any numpty writing an article/paper like this tries to kill their own next dinner to discover why things are the way they are ...

myshpa 3y ago
> the big cats, larger insects, dogs/wolves, crocs n that, let alone bloody great 'awks None of them are able to make all their prey go extinct.
- Detrytus 3y ago
  Back to "origins of intelligence", I'm not sure what's the cause and what is the effect here. The reason why humans are different from other animals is that our intelligence makes us adaptable. Take a lion, or a spider, or a hawk and the whole species exhibits basically the same behavior, which is based on instinct. If you saw one of them then you've kind of seen them all. Humans can change their behavior, develop new tools, new hunting methods, which is why we've been able to make some of our prey go extinct.
  - myshpa 3y ago
    I think it's more about our ability to use advanced language than just being smart. Humans can talk, share stories, and pass down knowledge. That's how we build culture and learn from the past, and it makes a big difference.
- kbelder 3y ago
  Sure they did, many times.
andsoitis 3y ago
> But one may well ask: Why did humans become smarter all of a sudden? What was the advantage of having a large brain ... To hunt small elusive animals humans had to become smarter, faster, more focused, more observant, and more collaborative." Couple of armchair thoughts: - it wasn’t “sudden” - we didn’t become smart in order to do x. Instead, natural selection favored certain variation in the context of the environment and we happen to have certain mutations and environments - symbolic reasoning

myshpa 3y ago

> the big cats, larger insects, dogs/wolves, crocs n that, let alone bloody great 'awks None of them are able to make all their prey go extinct.

Detrytus 3y ago
Back to "origins of intelligence", I'm not sure what's the cause and what is the effect here. The reason why humans are different from other animals is that our intelligence makes us adaptable. Take a lion, or a spider, or a hawk and the whole species exhibits basically the same behavior, which is based on instinct. If you saw one of them then you've kind of seen them all. Humans can change their behavior, develop new tools, new hunting methods, which is why we've been able to make some of our prey go extinct.
- myshpa 3y ago
  I think it's more about our ability to use advanced language than just being smart. Humans can talk, share stories, and pass down knowledge. That's how we build culture and learn from the past, and it makes a big difference.
kbelder 3y ago
Sure they did, many times.

andsoitis 3y ago

> But one may well ask: Why did humans become smarter all of a sudden? What was the advantage of having a large brain ... To hunt small elusive animals humans had to become smarter, faster, more focused, more observant, and more collaborative." Couple of armchair thoughts: - it wasn’t “sudden” - we didn’t become smart in order to do x. Instead, natural selection favored certain variation in the context of the environment and we happen to have certain mutations and environments - symbolic reasoning