What Happened to Hominids Who May Have Been Smarter Than Us

[circumspice]

Here's a nice reposte.

http://johnhawks.net/weblog/reviews/bra ... -2009.html

[uniface]

Well and good, I suppose.

But while that may well be the case, reading it raises my hackles on two accounts.

One is the casual ease with which the whole matter's dismissed on the grounds that it's out of date. Granted, there are advances as time passes. But only das Klub assumes that ideas have shelf-lives the way loaves of bread do. There are fashions in attitudes as well as in clothing.

The second is that watching anything get trashed that even implies that the concept of "race" (that most obnoxious of all four-letter words) might be valid triggers an automatic, conditioned feel-good response in people -- a response so painstakingly conditioned that it passes unnoticed. This alone makes me wonder if there might be some other side to it. Das Klub notwithstanding, unanymity of opinion is rarely (if ever) assurance of truth. If anything, it's the opposite, given our sorry collective history of falling into line on what amounts to the principle of "Eat dung -- fifty million flies can't be wrong !"

[circumspice]

Hmmm... Perhaps I should have posted this, along with the first url. This one sheds more light on the writer's objections inre the so-called Boskops Race. And the attendent claims of an enormous, mystical intelligence.

http://johnhawks.net/weblog/reviews/bra ... -2008.html

[circumspice]

Here is another link, a discussion as to whether or not the Wiki article is neutral. I guess this one is going to remain controversial.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Boskop_Man

[Rokcet Scientist]

Why is it that a hominid with a larger braincase capacity than ours is automatically assumed to have been smarter than us? If the Boskop 'people' were for real they evidently did not survive (very long) as a (sub) species. While that is not definite proof, it is at least a strong indication they probably were not smarter than us (or they ought to have survived – for a longer period of time than they did anyway), isn't it?

If braincase capacity determined relative intelligence many animals would have to be smarter than humans.
They aren't, though. So braincase capacity does not determine relative intelligence!

[uniface]

For all I know, your first posting may have summed the matter up perfectly.

I'm not arguing that it isn't. Only being cranky.

[Minimalist]

A lot of people prefer simple solutions to complex problems though, R/S.


I do recall that when my grandmother died and we were cleaning out her stuff we came across her high school geography book from 1895. You would have thought the section on Africa was written by the KKK. Some ideas do need to be updated.

[Rokcet Scientist]

[...] high school geography book from 1895. You would have thought the section on Africa was written by the KKK. Some ideas do need to be updated.

If (the ideas behind) a high school geography book from 1895 "need to be updated", then an update of (the ideas behind) a constitution from 1776 is really overdue...

A lot of people prefer simple solutions to complex problems

But, as Mick Jagger sang:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0jyKabLHVc

[Rokcet Scientist]

Oops! The constitution was actually created in 1787, and ratified in 1788.
But I'm sure you got which one I allude to.

[dannan14]

That's OK RS. Very few Americans would be able to answer correctly. i would be willing to bet that the most common response would be 1776.

[Minimalist]

It has been updated R/S...by those activist judges that the Teabaggers hate so much.

[Rokcet Scientist]

It has been updated R/S...by those activist judges that the Teabaggers hate so much.

It doesn't just need a few rewritten paragraphs, Ts crossed and Is dotted, it needs a fundamental overhaul. A basic rethink.

[Minimalist]

Come now, it has been amended 17 times since the Bill of Rights..... granted, it took 202 years for that last amendment to be approved but still, we're on it.

[Rokcet Scientist]

Come now, it has been amended 17 times since the Bill of Rights..... granted, it took 202 years for that last amendment to be approved but still, we're on it.

Peanuts.

The US system is based on the competition principle (election system: winner takes all; and war), and has been for over 200 years. If the USA wants to survive the next 200 years it needs to shed that egotistical principle and should conceive of a system based on cooperation, coalition, and compromise instead.

Not against 'others' (xenophobia), but together with 'others'!

That is a radically different mindset. Yes, alien to most Americans, thus it will be very difficult to change. But the US have no choice: this is also evolution. Adapt or perish...

[Minimalist]

Well simply, no. The constitution makes no provision for political parties...which may have been one of the more naive oversights by the founding fathers.

Anyway I've already told you, with the morons we have running around loose anything they do will make it worse not better. The idea that people can get together to do something rational is one of your more naive beliefs.