What is evolution's greatest challenge?
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What is evolution's greatest challenge?
Maybe another way of looking at it is what's the greatest mystery that evolution holds for you?
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Re: What is evolution's greatest challenge?
That's why the laws of physics, for example, can generally only be applied directly to very, very simple idealized situations. (Remember the physicist trying to predict the outcome of a horse race? - "OK. Assume a spherical horse in a vacuum".)
Anyway, I suspect for most people the biggest challenges are 1. the origins of life and 2. the evolutionary reasons why humans need to have brains capable of understanding rocket science, brain surgery and Hamlet.
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Re: What is evolution's greatest challenge?
Oh, and the Ainu probably walked to Japan because the South China Sea had land bridges or narrow water to Japan during the last ice age.
- Playdoh
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Re: What is evolution's greatest challenge?
Ofcourse i've heard the counter to this argument. That it was because we started walking upright which gave us access to hands which allowed us to find ways to use them in new innovative ways. It still seems lacking as an explanation. Or the argument that other species have intelligence such as dolphins or apes, but comparing a human's intelligence to a chimp is like comparing a hamster to a velociraptor. There's just a gigantic leap from us from any other species, why the leap?
Another thought is why did neanderthals die out if they too were intelligent and practical. Or any homo-species for that manner?
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Re: What is evolution's greatest challenge?
On another thread I posted the reason why Neanderthal became extinct was probably due to geneticsPlaydoh wrote:To me, evolution's greatest flaw is accounting for the vast difference between humans and all other life forms that are observable. How is it that intelligence as an adaptive selective trait only got chosen for once in nature. Isn't evolution the selection of the strongest traits? If intelligence is a trait, and we have been more successful then any other species because of it's development, then how is it that it is so rare to find it in nature.
Ofcourse i've heard the counter to this argument. That it was because we started walking upright which gave us access to hands which allowed us to find ways to use them in new innovative ways. It still seems lacking as an explanation. Or the argument that other species have intelligence such as dolphins or apes, but comparing a human's intelligence to a chimp is like comparing a hamster to a velociraptor. There's just a gigantic leap from us from any other species, why the leap?
Another thought is why did neanderthals die out if they too were intelligent and practical. Or any homo-species for that manner?
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Re: What is evolution's greatest challenge?
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Re: What is evolution's greatest challenge?
I agree that one of the biggest evolutionary mysteries is the apparently vast gulf between us and our nearest living relatives. But there does seem to be evidence of a pretty wide variety of other hominid species with a whole spectrum of different mental abilities living until, in evolutionary time scales, a few moments ago.How is it that intelligence as an adaptive selective trait only got chosen for once in nature. Isn't evolution the selection of the strongest traits? If intelligence is a trait, and we have been more successful then any other species because of it's development, then how is it that it is so rare to find it in nature.
Maybe they died out for essentially the same kinds of reasons that other great apes are currently in the process of dying out in the wild? Maybe this thing we call intelligence is inherently unstable, a bit like completely unregulated free markets, and always leads to monopolies in which one species/company becomes dominant and the rest are driven to extinction?
Philosophy Explorer:
I think this evidence that we have some Neanderthal DNA shows that even the concept of extinction is not quite as black-and-white as we might think.If you go to my The worst period in human history thread in the Philosophers' Lounge and click on the Youtube link in post #3, you will see a NOVA presentation about interbreeding between Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens that led to Neanderthals extinction (but maybe I shouldn't say this since we carry a fraction of their DNA).
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Re: What is evolution's greatest challenge?
Well, possibly. But these days there are 7 billion of us, all consuming resources like there's no tomorrow. I don't think hom. sap. was quite such resource-hogs in the past. I don't think we are necessarily the bad guys in the Neanderthal story. I think this short (2 minute!) BBC documentary shows things quite clearly.Maybe they died out for essentially the same kinds of reasons that other great apes are currently in the process of dying out in the wild? Maybe this thing we call intelligence is inherently unstable, a bit like completely unregulated free markets, and always leads to monopolies in which one species/company becomes dominant and the rest are driven to extinction?
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Re: What is evolution's greatest challenge?
I can't watch the video right now because I'm at work, supposed to be working but bored with it. But it's Horrible Histories so I presume it is both funny and educational. I'll watch it later.
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Re: What is evolution's greatest challenge?
Or indeed decide to destroy another species. I get the impression that a lot of people imagine 'survival of the fittest' as meaning the strong literally gang up on the weak and commit mass murder. Even worse they think it means believing the strong have a right to do that. A lot of social (so-called-)Darwinism seems based on that model. That false image may have a lot to with some people abhorring the idea of evolution.But we don't collectively decide as a species to destroy other species' habitats.
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Re: What is evolution's greatest challenge?
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Re: What is evolution's greatest challenge?
But don't worry about it if you don't know right now- I'm sure I'll find the answer is on the internet when I get enough motivation to actually look.
- Playdoh
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Re: What is evolution's greatest challenge?
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Re: What is evolution's greatest challenge?
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