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Re: Are we "special"?
Phillip Bigelow (bh162@scn.org)
Fri, 20 Dec 1996 17:40:47 -0800
John Waters wrote:
> The LBI brood may not be particularly remarkable, but
> sometimes the least remarkable changes can lead to the most
> remarkable long term effects.
I for one am having trouble deciding if multi-age brooding is a
cause, or if it is a serendipitous effect.
For instance, if complex gramatical language developed first,
it could make it easier for the changes you wrote about to evolve.
This scenario is, of course, the opposite of what your thesis
proposes.
Similar cart-before-the-horse arguments could also be made
for large brain size in human babies, relative size of the
birth canal in human females, etc. etc.
One of the problems in determing such things in PA is that
there is nothing in the way of hard data to hang anything on.
It is damn difficult to determine with any degree of confidence
what is a cause, and what is an effect, (or, if the
purported cause and effect are even related in the first place).
<pb>
--
"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence"
Carl Sagan (1934-1996)
May he rest in the Cosmos.
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