<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Oct 17, 2026 at 4:08 PM <<a href="mailto:spike@rainier66.com">spike@rainier66.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div class="msg-748933010766819867"><div lang="EN-US" style="overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div class="m_-748933010766819867WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><u></u> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif">>…That's one of the big unsolved mysteries about human evolution.<span class="m_-748933010766819867gmaildefault"> It's clear from the fossil record that fully bipedal walking evolved before our large brains did, and that makes sense because a large smart brain wouldn't increase survival much if you didn't have hands; but what evolutionary pressure favored bipedal walking?<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="m_-748933010766819867gmaildefault"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="m_-748933010766819867gmaildefault"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif"><i style="">I have seen a compelling theory on that.  Bipedal walking enables humans to have a great deal of distance endurance even if at the expense of speed. </i></span></span></p></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><font size="4" face="tahoma, sans-serif"><b>Yes but I don't see why Bipedal walking would be better at endurance than quadratic walking,<span class="gmail_default" style=""> if anything the reverse would seem more likely to me. </span></b></font><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div class="msg-748933010766819867"><div lang="EN-US" style="overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div class="m_-748933010766819867WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="m_-748933010766819867gmaildefault"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif"><u></u> </span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="m_-748933010766819867gmaildefault"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif">If the hands had evolved to be able to knap flint, they could create the tools necessary to butcher the beest,</span></b></span></p></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>Yes if you have a big brain and hands you could do that,<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> but you can't do that with just hands and hands evolved before big brains. What are the huge disadvantages of evolution is that it has no foresight, even if a mutation would give a great advantage two or three steps down the line it's not going to get passed to the next generation unless it conveys an advantage right now RIGHT NOW.</span> It just doesn't understand that one step back and two steps forward<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> is an advance because evolution is dumb but until it got around to impending a brain that was the only way that complex objects could get built. </span></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div class="msg-748933010766819867"><div lang="EN-US" style="overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div class="m_-748933010766819867WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="m_-748933010766819867gmaildefault"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif"><u></u> </span></b></span></p></div></div></div></blockquote><b style="background-color:transparent"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif"> </span></b><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div class="msg-748933010766819867"><div lang="EN-US" style="overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div class="m_-748933010766819867WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="m_-748933010766819867gmaildefault"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif"><i>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.</i></span></span></p></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style=""><font size="4" style="" face="tahoma, sans-serif"><b style="">True, but what immediate advantage would that mutation confer? </b></font></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div class="msg-748933010766819867"><div lang="EN-US" style="overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div class="m_-748933010766819867WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="m_-748933010766819867gmaildefault"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif"> I think I read they occasionally do, for short distances.  <u></u><u></u></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="m_-748933010766819867gmaildefault"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="m_-748933010766819867gmaildefault"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif">Once out of sub Saharan Africa, the hands which were adapted to manipulating a spear were pre-adapted to building more elaborate shelters, enabling humans to radiate further, creating new evolutionary pressure.<u></u><u></u></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="m_-748933010766819867gmaildefault"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="m_-748933010766819867gmaildefault"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif">>…There are lots of theories but I don't find any of them particularly convincing. </span></b></span>  <span class="m_-748933010766819867gmaildefault"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif">John K Clark<u></u><u></u></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="m_-748933010766819867gmaildefault"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="m_-748933010766819867gmaildefault"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif">John is the biggest flaw in that line of reasoning?<u></u><u></u></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="m_-748933010766819867gmaildefault"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="m_-748933010766819867gmaildefault"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif">spike<u></u><u></u></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="m_-748933010766819867gmaildefault"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="m_-748933010766819867gmaildefault"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="m_-748933010766819867gmaildefault"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif"> </span></b></span><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif"> </span></b><u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"> <u></u><u></u></p></div></div></div></blockquote></div></div>