World of Science +1: Artificial Ape Man

WheelsOfConfusion · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 14053 Location: Unknown Kaddath

All I know is I feel deficient without some fuckin' claws. Stupid tool use!

E-boy · Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2011 5:25 pm Post subject:

Again, it's no so much I disagree with the guy as I think he's overblowing it. A bit like Gould's "Revolutionary" Punctuated Equilibrium. Which was neither a new idea nor terribly revolutionary.

In any case, there are a great number of animals that use tools. Fellow primates, birds, Dolphins. It's a fair bet that behavior can and does influence evolution. In point of fact ANYTHING, that alters the environment in relatively stable ways will influence natural selection whether it be cultural factors like technology or natural phenomena.\

The influence of technology on human evolution is NOT a new or revolutionary concept. In fact, one of the first tasks of molecular anthropologists has been to comb through their growing data bases for signs of ongoing change. They are finding it, but not at the rates they were expecting. Cultural change is far more rapid than biological change and only certain aspects of human cultural change have been stable enough for long enough to influence our environment in a predictable enough way to leave a mark. Cooking and agriculture seem to have although the verdict is still out as they are looking for evidence of enzymes specific to cooking products in human digestion. They are looking for all sorts of things. The genes associated with human olfaction seem to be changing the fastest. So far they've given rise to one of our more unique abilities. The ability to smell food we are actively masticating which adds the sensation of flavor to taste.

In addition to the relatively long time periods required for biological change, you can add a pretty unique lack of genetic diversity in modern humans. This has been blamed on a "bottleneck" in which our species very nearly became extinct sometime between forty and eighty thousand years ago (A figure that makes a super volcano in asia that erupted about 70 thousand years ago a prime suspect). Diversity is the fuel natural selection runs on. This probably helps explain the lower than expected rate of ongoing change.

My point stands though that this is not a new or revolutionary idea and that the author is pushing a bit too hard. Kinda like many of the initial evolutionary psych research got way overhyped to the detriment of the field as a whole.
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"Life is tough, but it's tougher when you're stupid" ~ SGT John Stryker from "Sands of Iwo Jima".

nathan · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 6316

We found an old brain!
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Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil. ~ Ellen Degeneres

WheelsOfConfusion · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 14053 Location: Unknown Kaddath

Darkman · Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2011 5:13 pm Post subject:

Willem · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 6306 Location: wasteland style

2,684 years. And depends on where he was decapitated, I guess. It wouldn't be history if it's in the UK. It'd be protohistory, not prehistory.
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attitude of a street punk, only cutting selected words out of context to get onself excuse to let one's dirty mouth loose

Darkman · Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2011 5:25 pm Post subject:

Michael · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 11055

Willem · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 6306 Location: wasteland style