Re: Are we "special"?

Gerrit Hanenburg (G.Hanenburg@inter.nl.net)
Sat, 07 Dec 1996 10:03:32 GMT

Paul@crowleyp.demon.co.uk (Paul Crowley) wrote:

>If you have seen any hypothesis that you think has some value,
>please outline it. Because, without exception, every one I've
>come across in the literature has been so weak, so unexamined
>and so poorly thought through, that I would repeat: "we have not
>begun to outline its probable evolution or the reasons for that
>evolution".

I suggest you read the following papers:

Aiello,L.C.and Dunbar,R.I.M.(1993), Neocortex size, group size, and
the evolution of language. Current Anthropology 34:184-193.

Dunbar,R.I.M.(1992), Neocortex size as a constraint on group size in
primates. J.Hum.Evol.20:469-493.

Dunbar,R.I.M.(1996), Neocortex size and group size in primates:a test
of the hypothesis. J.Hum.Evol.28:287-296.

See also Byrne,R.(1995), The Thinking Ape:evolutionary origins of
intelligence. Oxford University Press.

That probably spares me a waste of time.

>More fundamentally, there appears to be something in the
>training of PA's that forces them to focus on the strictly
>mundane and seems to render them incapable of recognising
>complexities of either a physical or philosophical nature.

It is generalizations like these that sometimes make me doubt your
intellectual capabilities.

Gerrit