Re: Why large brains was Re: tree-climbing hominids

H. M. Hubey (hubey@pegasus.montclair.edu)
15 Nov 1995 00:00:31 -0500

n8010095@cc.wwu.edu (Phillip Bigelow) writes:

> Because Hubey is falsely assuming that large braininess (e.g. "smartness",

1) What you say is false. Straw man.
2) As far as the ratio r=b/B goes, it's true; bigger the r, the better.
3) I suggested something even better;

(b-c*B-k)/B

Try it; you'll probably like it.

>with it's resultant technology) is a character trait of "high evolutionary
>'grade'" (to use his rhetoric). Compared to Aves, humans are primitive in
>every other way except for intelligence.

Your concept of primitive is primitive, as is your concept of
complex. There are lots of complexity measure and it's not
clear exactly what is meant.

> Aves is presently the furthestly-derived of the vertebrates...in the
>history of the world.

So what?

Most cladists would rank humans as primitive to
>intermediate in evolutionary characteristics.

So what? The word primitive should not be coterminus with time.

> Hubey is also making the claim based on knowledge after-the-fact.

How else are scientific models created?

Are you feeling OK these days?

Since
>we know that large brained animals exist, then, by Hubey's logic, it was in
>the cards (or in the stars, to be more mystical) that they would evolve.

Sooner or later they had to evolve, and take over. 2+2=4.

By
>Hubey's reasoning, evolution is somehow "driven" toward something.

It is. It's driven towards production of intelligent beings who
will be in a position to tinker with nature.

> Frankly, I think he is delving more into the field of religion than into
>science.
> <pb>
>

Frankly I don't give a damn. I see more religion a la Gould in
your fashionably PC posts than anything else. The creationists
got you guys going and you can't fight back, so you see them
crawling all over the world. Furthermore, in order to fight them
off you've taken extreme positions based on emotional values
of phrases like "biological determinism"=Nazi.

You don't even know what determinism is and you probably
don't know that it was talked about in physics long time
ago i.e. Laplace and his demon. These ideas have been with
us humans one way or another and in almost every field i.e
free will, deterministic eqs, chaos, randomness, ...blah blah..

Give it up. It's boring.

-- 





				Regards, Mark

				http://www.smns.montclair.edu/~hubey