Re: Neoteny was Re: god makes hubey
Bill Burnett (bbur@wpo.nerc.ac.uk)
Wed, 22 Nov 1995 14:05:24
(H. M. Hubey) writes:
>bbur@wpo.nerc.ac.uk (Bill Burnett) writes:
>>Explain how neoteny indicates a pre-set goal, please.
>It's odd that they don't look like more primitive ancestors
>and instead like their more developed (virtual) descendants.
>Human babies look like what we'd normally extrapolate as
>our future descendants.
Let me get this straight... correct me if I've misunderstood you...
You claim
1) chimp embryos/foetuses look more like humans than they do chimps
2) human embyos/foetuses look like what you predict our descendents will
This indicates a pre-set goal? That's what I asked. At best, if true, it
indicates change with time, i.e. evolution, and might, if true, have some
predictive ability. I fail to see how it indicates a goal, or, if you prefer,
an inevitability that we will travel to the stars.
I assume your 'virtual' comment is intended to indicate that chimps are _not_
our ancestors, but a sister taxon, and I hardly think sci-fi predictions of
what our descendents _might_ look like constitute 'evidence'.
Bill
----------------------------------------------------
Bill Burnett - bbur@wpo.nerc.ac.uk
Scottish Association for Marine Science
P.O. Box 3, Oban, Argyll PA34 4AD, UK
|