From: Steele, Kirk A (SteeleKA@nafm.misawa.af.mil)
Date: Thu Jan 10 2002 - 18:57:34 MST
Ok, just got through reading this guy. Again, latching science to silliness,
but done a hell of a lot better than most.
The biggest detractor in this guy's paper is the assertion of ascetics over
function as a primary selection criteria:
"After another million years of evolutionary stasis aesthetically pleasing
"symmetrical" tools began to appear associated with a standardization of
production technique and artifact form"
Ca ca!
Aesthetic assertions indicate a complete lack of appreciation of the
physical effort necessary to perform these tasks and subsequentially use
these tools to effect survival. I speak from experience. I have made and
used all manner of primative tools in the context of bare-naked man on the
prarie trying to survive one week.
When your survival is predicated upon functional elegance, "aesthetic"
observations may assert themselves as indicators of funtionality. They are
not predicate attributes.
Kirkasaurus Wrecks
-----Original Message-----
From: L' Ermit [mailto:lhermit@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2002 9:37 AM
To: virus@lucifer.com
Subject: virus: Mirror Neurons and Imitation Learning + Important things
Joe, thanks for the article link
[http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/ramachandran/ramachandran_p1.html]. His
hypothesis seems eminently believable, although there is some information
that I think he is missing, and in the light of which, I think he will need
to rework his paper somewhat.
This is the fact that prior to approximately 120-130 kyears BCE we could not
have talked even if we had wanted to, as our throat/tongue structure would
not have allowed us to.
We do know that we developed our ability to speak somewhere around then
(from skull and jaw muscle anchorages), at the cost of becoming able to
choke - which suggests that being able to speak was one of the three most
costly selection processes we have indulged in.
And that also gives us the answer to the question of what is "most
important" to humans, as it was not until we learnt to communicate by speech
that we began a cycle of rapid development...
Regards
Hermit
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