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From: janw@inmet.UUCP
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Why are Humans as Smart as They Are
Message-ID: <121700006@inmet>
Date: Thu, 20-Aug-87 23:26:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: inmet.121700006
Posted: Thu Aug 20 23:26:00 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 23-Aug-87 11:43:56 EDT
References: <1041@ttidca.TTI.COM>
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Nf-From: inmet.UUCP!janw    Aug 20 23:26:00 1987


[lonetto@phri.UUCP ]
>But then I look at many modern humans watching Dynasty, at a  to-
>tal  loss  for  how  to  cope,  idealizing  Ollie North (and even
>BELIEVING him), poisoning the water and atmosphere, arguing  that
>"there's  plenty of room for more people" (though aparently there
>isn't enough room for the rest of the species on this planet)

...and even  making political correctness of opinions the
criterion of intelligence... now *that* is really dumb; but see
below.

>and it seems that the larger part of the
>question is indeed "why not smarter?"  

Perhaps it is because *conformity* is a  survival  characteristic
inside a group. Selecting for it also increases the group's cohe-
sion and to this extent makes it stronger.  On  the  other  hand,
conformity  destroys  intelligence,  causing  the group to choose
suboptimal strategies against nature and against other groups.

Therefore, in intergroup competition, a certain  balance  between
these   two  characteristics,  discipline  and  intelligence,  is
selected. 

This might explain both "why smart" and "why not smarter".

Biological and social evolution may well have gone hand in  hand,
nature  selecting  between  competing groups with certain genetic
and cultural characteristics; social factors selecting  indivi-
duals inside a group. Thus, there would be a two-level selection
system, a group being selected for its internal selection methods.

The mechanism may not even depend strongly on how much intelligence,
or any of its preconditions, is genetically determined.
Assuming that biological parents bring the child up, the genetic types
and the role models are selected together.

			Jan Wasilewsky