In a message dated 5/2/2005 7:46:42 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> A goof point Warren, but you forget that genes aren't the *only* unit > of inheritance- culture is also inherited. Sawyer could have just as > well postulated a race of hominids, humanoid pre-cursors, which are > poised just on the critical cusp of breaking into counsciousness, and > only need an inspiration or model to make the leap themselves. One of > them would be bound to 'get' counsciousness eventually, and by > imitation it would spread vertically and horizontally (and would > exterminate any groups that didn't 'get' it.) > This substitute model has the nice side effect that the character > expouding it could easily segue into a learned disquisition on > historical 'wolflings' as an example- humans brought up with no > counscious human model from which to 'get' it. > Except that cultural inheritence requires a brain capable of interacting with other brains in the society in a manner that generates culture. Culture does exist in other species in particular chimps where means of getting food may vary based on one member of the tribe via luck or intelligence ( a chimp einstein or at least a chimp henry ford) comes up with a new trick. But that is as far as it goes. In order for consciousness to be a cultural phenomena hominds must already have very complex brains. And brains don't come cheap. they are expensive and time consuming to build and maintain. having a big brain means having a big head. this requires changes in gestational strategies (humans are born very prematurely. Based on a variety of comparitive tests human gestation should probably be about 15 months. But the head would be too big to deliver so natural selection has favored early delivery of an infant that is completely incapable of even the most rudimentary tasks of independent life. By comparison at birth a chimp has the same degree of maturation as a one year child. So there has to be very strong evolutionary pressure (i.e a competitive advantage) for big brains capable of consciousness to evolve. The most likely advantage is that cognition communication and memory even in their most primative forms made hominids more successful. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
