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Re: Brain size, IQ
Stephen Barnard (steve@megafauna.com)
Wed, 04 Sep 1996 08:37:32 -0800
Len Piotrowski wrote:
>
> In article <50i6jq$kvu@news.sdd.hp.com> geroldf@sdd.hp.com (Gerold Firl) writes:
>
> >[snip]
>
> >I used that data because I happened to have it on hand.
>
> >[snipped stuff repeated from previous off topic post]
>
> >You're awfully quick to dispute things, lenny, even when you know
> >nothing about the subject. This isn't tangential to the discussion,
> >since cranial capacity clearly *is* a heritable trait, and furthermore
> >it is also clearly correlated with the long-term increase in hominid
> >intelligence.
>
> Duh, Firl, we're talking about modern humans!
>
> >You wrote:
>
> >|> >|>[snip]
>
> >|> Double boggle!
>
> >You sure boggle a lot.
>
> I believe the implication was directed at another source, Firl.
>
> >|> >Biological evolution moves much more gradually than
> >|> >that. On a geological time scale, species can appear very suddenly,
>
> >|> No felt contradiction in this statement, Firl?
>
> >None whatsoever, lenny. If the fossil record provides samples at
> >million-year intervals, then it will appear that new species develop
> >very suddenly.
>
> Well, duh-h ...
>
> >You need to understand the difference in scale between a
> >20 year generation time and the million year speciation time constant.
>
> da, duh-h ...
>
> >(hominid species seem to show an approximate million year time
> >constant, going from australopithicus to habilus to erectus to sapiens)
>
> duh-h, *duh-h-h* ...
>
> >Nothing much happens in a single generation, but over the course of a
> >large number of generations (a few thousand?) a new species can appear.
>
> .. and thus spake Firlmeister.
>
> >Getting back to your claim that cranial capacity is not a hereditable
> >trait, and all boggles aside, there is no anomaly: human intelligence
> >is adaptive, and natural selection has produced successivly more
> >intelligent humans. It has also produced larger brains.
>
> Mind posting your cranial capacity, Firl! Entertain us with that anomaly!
>
> Cheers,
>
> --Lenny__
>
> "If you can't remember what mnemonic means, you've got a problem."
> - perlstyle
This sort of ad hominem assault doesn't advance your position. It impedes it.
Steve Barnard
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