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Re: tree-climbing hominids
Troy Kelley (tkelley@hel4.brl.mil)
Mon, 13 Nov 1995 14:21:32 GMT
Subject: Re: tree-climbing hominids
From: Mark Fagan, 71640.2463@CompuServe.COM
Date: 10 Nov 1995 22:35:07 GMT
In article <480k2r$s05$2@mhafm.production.compuserve.com> Mark Fagan,
71640.2463@CompuServe.COM writes:
>All this talk of direction in evolution seems to miss an
>important point. There is an underlying assumption that this
>'direction' was inevitable.
>
>If, as Steven J. Gould asserts, you rewind the clock and
>evolution follows a completely different course, it follows that
>there is no real direction, only an illusion that is the result
>of an historical trail.
>
>Early hominids lived millions of years without large brains. So
>was intelligence the inevitable 'direction' that human evolution
>had to follow or the result of a series of random selection
>events?
>
>Evolution is blind, deaf and dumb!
The increase of brain size in hominids occured at about the same time as
increases in tool use. It is my opinion that the skill of tool making
was put on a very high pedestal our early ancestors. Women were probably
selecting men who could make the best tools, because they were bringing
home the most meat, and could provide for a family better. So there was a
natural selection toward intelligence, specifically intelligence in the
art of tool making.
Troy
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