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Old 08-16-2011, 12:55 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by imcurious View Post
You would just think that after millions or billions of years, the species would be perfected.
Says who?
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Old 08-16-2011, 02:46 PM
 
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Evolution is not about perfection. It is about change, and that change may not necessarily be beneficial to a population. There are far more species that have gone exinct than are living today. They didn't all die in mass extinctions caused by asteroid impacts or volcanic eruptions.
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Old 08-17-2011, 01:44 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by imcurious View Post
I have what is probably a dumb question for all of you science geniuses . . .

If "man" has evolved for millions or billions of years (sorry, I have not a clue), then what accounts for apparent "stupidity" amongst many homo sapiens?
Stupid compared to what?

Evolution isn't perfect, and there's always variation within a species. I expect even chimps make fun of the dumber chimps in the group.

Plus, once we settled down and got organized and civilized, we removed a lot of the environmental pressures that otherwise would have culled the dumbasses out of the herd in the old days.

Quote:
If this is the best that can be done after millions or billions of years, what do you make of that and how did the first humans ever manage to survive???
Because they were smart ENOUGH. That's all that was required to survive to reproductive age.
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Old 08-17-2011, 07:48 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by imcurious View Post
You would just think that after millions or billions of years, the species would be perfected.
Why would you think that? Evolution generates ramshackle constructs that are just good enough.
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Old 08-17-2011, 07:57 PM
 
Location: Western Washington
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Strel View Post
Stupid compared to what?

Evolution isn't perfect, and there's always variation within a species. I expect even chimps make fun of the dumber chimps in the group.

Plus, once we settled down and got organized and civilized, we removed a lot of the environmental pressures that otherwise would have culled the dumbasses out of the herd in the old days.



Because they were smart ENOUGH. That's all that was required to survive to reproductive age.
Yes, and when you think of all of the things that humans have had to learn, over the course of their evolution, they've actually evolved quite well. Unfortunately, there are some pretty serious things that have, over the last 200 years, been lost in some people. So very many people are virtually helpless, other than their basic survival instincts. Throw them out in the world and take away their income....they could only survive through stealing.
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Old 08-17-2011, 09:45 PM
 
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Not that I condone it, but stealing is a survival instinct. Animals do it all the time. And we may be human, but we are still animals, as Steve vai once said.
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Old 08-18-2011, 12:13 AM
 
Location: Western Washington
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Quote:
Originally Posted by orogenicman View Post
Not that I condone it, but stealing is a survival instinct. Animals do it all the time. And we may be human, but we are still animals, as Steve vai once said.
Hence, my statement ....."basic survival instincts"
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Old 08-18-2011, 12:49 AM
 
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It is a little known fact that the purpose of evolution is to improve the primary energy transformation function of animals, which involves the digestive system. The first modifications were to the mouth, with variations in size, tongue, teeth (especially teeth that were evolved to eat certain foods.) With the ruminants, such as sheep and cattle, the stomach was vastly improved to be able to digest grasses and readily available foods containing fairly low energy. When man came along, the focus of evolution was NOT the brain. Evolution is searching for the perfect as*hole.
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Old 08-18-2011, 01:31 AM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by harry chickpea View Post
It is a little known fact that the purpose of evolution is to improve the primary energy transformation function of animals, which involves the digestive system. The first modifications were to the mouth, with variations in size, tongue, teeth (especially teeth that were evolved to eat certain foods.) With the ruminants, such as sheep and cattle, the stomach was vastly improved to be able to digest grasses and readily available foods containing fairly low energy. When man came along, the focus of evolution was NOT the brain. Evolution is searching for the perfect as*hole.

Found him:

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Old 08-18-2011, 01:42 AM
 
29,939 posts, read 39,334,215 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by imcurious View Post
I have what is probably a dumb question for all of you science geniuses . . .

If "man" has evolved for millions or billions of years (sorry, I have not a clue), then what accounts for apparent "stupidity" amongst many homo sapiens?

If this is the best that can be done after millions or billions of years, what do you make of that and how did the first humans ever manage to survive???
As soon as we started trying to stop stupid people from killing themselves is when it all went to hell. Those people reproduce you know.
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