[extropy-chat] thank evolution for the interstate highway system

[Mike Lorrey]

--- Dirk Bruere <dirk at neopax.com> wrote:
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Mike Lorrey" <mlorrey at yahoo.com>> 
> >
> > As above, neanderthals were not of higher intelligence. The fact
> that
> > they are extinct demonstrates that they failed miserably at the
> most
> > important test of intelligence against a more intelligent
> competitor
> > for the same resources.
> 
> ie outbreeding their competitor.

No, there is no evidence of that. Neanderthals suffered from several
disadvantages: their bones were much more dense, so they could not
swim. Their arms did not allow as much dexterity as homo sap so they
could not wield distance weapons like spears with any accuracy or force
beyond ten meters or so, and so likely never evolved the mental ability
to judge trajectories very well. 

Their lack of intelligence was evidenced primarily by their extreme
lack of hygiene or organization in their living quarters (jokes about
the living arrangements of certain geeks notwithstanding). They
typically lived in nests of decaying prey, bones, and ash, infested by
rodents and insect parasites. They seemed to have developed a basic
concept of "mine" with regards to personal property, such that dead
neanderthals were buried with "their stuff", a feature that many
anthropologists assumed meant some sort of religious belief in an
afterlife existed, but this is nothing more than transference.

As another poster mentioned, burial was an act of conspicuous
consumption. Neanderthal burials became less and less elaborate over
time as pressure from homo sapiens put many clans on the run and could
not afford such displays. Hunger will turn any animal into a thief.

This competition was not exclusive to the neanderthal/homo sap
confrontation. There was a similar intelligence arms race going on
between predator species and prey species in all parts of the world
during this period up until the present day. A predator species would
evolve a larger brain case, and gain advantage over its prey species
until the selective preying on less intelligent prey resulted in the
evolution of smarter prey. This cut back on the competetiveness of the
predator species until it evolved into a smarter species with a bigger
brain.

This goes on today, particularly with regard to human predation on deer
and other mammal populations in North America. Human hunters use ever
more advanced technologies to help hunt these animals, but do not
decimate the herd, due to wildlife management principles. This has
resulted in the forced evolution of smarter deer, bear, and other
animal species. Especially with deer, where predation has been
predominantly on the male deer, one can see a measurable difference in
the intelligence of bucks vs does.

Back to the debate at hand, homo sapiens was just smarter than
neanderthals, and like many of the large mammals worldwide following
the Ice Age, neanderthal was forced into extinction because homo
sapiens was smart enough to outpredate anything, but not at that point
concious enough to manage wildlife wisely.

=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
                                       - Gen. John Stark
"Fascists are objectively pro-pacifist..."
                                       - Mike Lorrey
Do not label me, I am an ism of one...
Sado-Mikeyism: http://mikeysoft.zblogger.com

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