[ExI] ai is the easy road

[John Clark]

On Sat, Oct 17, 2026 at 5:20 PM <spike at rainier66.com> wrote:


>
>> *>>…Yes but I don't see why Bipedal walking would be better at endurance
>> than quadratic walking, if anything the reverse would seem more likely to
>> me….*
>
>
>
> *> **Bipedal motion in general isn’t more energy efficient than quad
> motion, but it is more efficient than how apes do quad motion.  I don’t
> think apes can chase game all day.*
>

*I agree. However that didn't matter because apes did most of their motion
in the trees, so they needed their hands to grasp branches, but when the
climate changed and there were fewer trees and more level ground they
evolved to bipedal walking. But why? When they no longer needed hands to
grasp branches why didn't they evolve to full quadrupedal walking instead
of full bipedal walking?*

*>>>If the hands had evolved to be able to knap flint, they could create
>> the tools necessary to butcher the beest,*
>
> *>>…Yes if you have a big brain and hands you could do that,** but you
> can't do that with just hands and hands evolved before big brains….*
>
>
>
> *> The notion is that hands improved the ability of early humans to hurl
> stones. *
>

*I've heard of that theory but I don't buy it. I think even a major league
baseball pitcher, who is better at throwing things than 99.99% of the human
beings on this planet, would starve to death if the only way he had to get
food was by throwing irregularly shaped rocks at rabbits, or at elephants.*

*>>>The interesting point is that bipedalism is almost where chimps are
>> today.  It doesn’t take much of a mutation for a modern ape to stand and
>> walk on two feet.*
>
>
>
> *>>…True, but what immediate advantage would that mutation confer?*
>
>
>
> > *My best guess on that is that bipedal motion in a group of apes allows
> the tall guy to intimidate the other males and impress the females. *
>

*That's better than the rock throwing theory but still not very convincing.
If it's true then why didn't zebras and lions also evolve into bipedal
creatures?*

*John K Clark  *



>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20261018/b1c60503/attachment.htm>