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

[kevinfreels at hotmail.com]

I am reading The Neandethal's Necklace by Juan Luis Arsuaga. I just started
it and it seems really good.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Dartfield" <twodeel at jornada.org>
To: "ExI chat list" <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2003 7:06 PM
Subject: Re: [extropy-chat] thank evolution for the interstate highway
system


> On Tue, 2 Dec 2003, Mike Lorrey wrote:
>
> > Making music, nor even religion, is not a function of conciousness.
> > Birds make music all the time, and apes are known to use tools and make
> > primitive art. Conciousness in man is not even thought to have developed
> > (according to some) until after the invention of writing. Read Julian
> > Jaynes' book The Origin of Conciousness in the Breakdown of the
> > Bicameral Mind.
>
> Yes, birds make music and apes use tools, but creating a musical
> instrument (a flute, in particular) seems like a much more advanced thing
> to do than sing like a bird or use a stick to fish out termites.  After
> reading Steven Baxter's novel _Evolution_, though, I realize that even
> this relatively sophisticated toolmaking does not necessarily indicate
> full-fledged consciousness, or even consciousness at all.  So I'm
> interested to read more.  The book you recommended will cost me $18 at
> Borders, though, since my local library doesn't have it -- is there any
> other book on the subject you'd recommend over this one, or is this the
> one I should go for?
>
> > As above, neanderthals were not of higher intelligence.
>
> Well, I said "given the superior intelligence of Sawyer's Neanderthals."
> In his trilogy, they WERE more intelligent than humans (or at least their
> modern-day descendants were), regardless of whether they were in reality.
> Call it a suspension-of-disbelief thing.
>
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