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From: G.Joly@cs.ucl.ac.uk (Gordon Joly)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: AI - the real problem
Message-ID: <1485@ucl-cs.uucp>
Date: 3 Mar 91 16:33:57 GMT
Sender: news@cs.ucl.ac.uk
Lines: 42


Chris Malcolm writes:
 > In article <1473@ucl-cs.uucp> G.Joly@cs.ucl.ac.uk (Gordon Joly) writes:
 > 
 > >If the first people walked that Earth 2.5 million years ago, then why
 > >did they have a brain with the same biology of that of Einstein,
 > >Beethoven or us?
 > 
 > With a much poorer cultural inheritance (far less giants to stand on the
 > shoulders of) it took an Einstein to invent such things as the
 > bow-and-arrow and a Marie Curie to invent such things as the basket --
 > the basket has been cited as the single most important human invention.

Yes, I see.

 > Don't forget that the evolution of the human brain size has to run
 > parallel with the evolution of the female hips. In other words, our
 > brain size is a compromise between the advantages of a big brain, and
 > the disadvantages of the brain damage that afflicts at least some due
 > the difficulty of getting the big head out.
 > [...]
 > -- 
 > Chris Malcolm    cam@uk.ac.ed.aipna   +44 (0)31 667 1011 x2550
 > Department of Artificial Intelligence,    Edinburgh University
 > 5 Forrest Hill, Edinburgh, EH1 2QL, UK                DoD #205

No, I disagree. The idea that a woman has to have large hips to give
birth to large(r) babies is a widespread misconception (pun intended).

Wide hips are a device for selection, not a device for babies with
bigger heads. There is only sexism here, since men are doing the
selection.

Any, we still have a lot redudancy left to soak up, cf Sacks work.

OMMM....

Gordon Joly                                       +44 71 387 7050 ext 3716
Internet: G.Joly@cs.ucl.ac.uk          UUCP: ...!{uunet,ukc}!ucl-cs!G.Joly
Computer Science, University College London, Gower Street, LONDON WC1E 6BT

   "I didn't do it. Nobody saw me do it. You can't prove anything!"