From: gts (gts_2000@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Apr 15 2003 - 17:44:20 MDT
Emlyn O'regan wrote:
> I have this weird notion that intelligence turned out to be a
> massive competitive advantage
What a strange idea! :-)
> It seems to me that everything
> about humans is tuned to the service of a general
> intelligence;... <snip>
>
> I'm just making that up, but it's always seemed obvious to me
> (often an indicator of being wrong). So is it wrong?
Sounds right to me.
In another thread I mentioned that it may have been consumption of animal
fats, especially fats from the brain and bone marrow, that allowed for the
massive explosion in brain size. The brain itself is mostly fat. Brain size
may have increased due to selection pressure for more intelligence in
combination with the increased consumption of DHA and other omega-3 fatty
acids from animal brains.
Our close relative the ape does not have a very large brain compared to homo
sapiens, which seems a bit puzzling (as in another thread here from the
past, "Why not the Planet of the Apes?"). After all apes do have a modicum
of intelligence. Why didn't natural selection pick up the ball and run with
it in apes, as it did in homo sapiens? The answer to this puzzle may be
simply that apes are vegetarians; they never ventured beyond the plush
forests and thus were never forced to learned how to scavenge and hunt for
the animal foods that would have provided them the raw materials necessary
for a larger brain.
-gts
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