Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncr-sd!hp-sdd!hplabs!decwrl!labrea!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!uccba!uceng!dmocsny
From: dmocsny@uceng.UC.EDU (daniel mocsny)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Thought/Emotion/Feeling
Summary: Short time-scale evolution
Message-ID: <496@uceng.UC.EDU>
Date: 10 Dec 88 16:50:27 GMT
References: <569@epicb.UUCP> <1146@arctic.nprdc.arpa> <1152@arctic.nprdc.arpa>
Organization: Univ. of Cincinnati, College of Engg.
Lines: 47

In article <1152@arctic.nprdc.arpa>, bickel@nprdc.arpa (Steven Bickel) writes:
>   I later realized that the concept of farming that I was
>   referring to was one where cognitive processing with significant
>   association to "long term" memory is required.
[ ... ]
>   This I believe is a relatively recent ( in the last 10 thousand years) 
>   evolutionary development.

You seem to be implying that human intelligence has evolved significantly
in the last 10 thousand years.

I thought this idea had already lost its justification -- after all,
individuals from cultures that have never had agriculture do not seem
to show any inferiority in standard measures of ``intelligence.''
Does anyone doubt that you could adopt a population of bush infants
and raise them to be (on average) successful members of any
contemporary society.

Some years ago I read a book by one Arthur Custance (I believe), in
which he discussed the incredibly elaborate knowledge structures and
technology of supposedly ``primitive'' cultures. He reported on tribal
cultures that had vocabularies as large as the English language.
These people had not just one word for ``river,'' but a different word
for every bend in each river. Custance also discussed the ingenious
and efficient technology that permits Eskimos to thrive in an
environment where zero degrees Celsius is a heat wave. Eskimo garments
are still preferred by many Polar explorers to their modern
equivalents. The eskimos found a way to kill polar bears with a lump
of fat, a strand of sinew, and a short piece of whalebone. (Answer:
whittle both ends of the whalebone to sharp points, roll it into a
tight circle, tie it with the sinew, pack the fat around it, and toss
it out on the ice. Polar bear happens by, swallows the lump, digests
the sinew, sproing, ouch, dead bear.)  How long would I survive if you
dumped me on an ice floe and flew away?

Considerable evidence points to some forms of intelligence emerging
without any concurrent concrete environmental benefit.  Humans have
had the ability to do mathematics for millenia now (as far as we can
tell).  However, mathematical ability seems to have been largely
useless until recently. I have seen interesting speculation that
mathematical ability is a lucky side effect of learning how to throw
hunting missiles, but to me that sounds like a long shot. :-)

Cheers,

Dan Mocsny
dmocsny@uceng.uc.edu