Obviously I cannot cite a reference. This is an opinion. I take it you think less than half of the sum total of what has been discovered or learned was learned in the past 400 years? Your priors suggest you assume linear advance in thinking, but hominid cranial enlargement began only 1-2 million years ago. So you must also expect, as a prior, that the difference between humans and chimps is 1/90th − 1/45th of the difference between chimps and dogs. In that case, why exclude chimps from our society?
The maximum travel speed of humans today have travelled is about 7 miles per second. Assuming a travel rate of 0 miles per second 4 billion years ago, we do not conclude that bacteria were able to propel themselves 3.5 miles per second 2 billion years ago.
I don’t really think there’s been a change in humans. I think there are new tools available that help us think better, much like the new machines available that let us move fast.
You don’t believe that homind cranial enlargement is responsible for more than half of the difference between modern humans and dogs, so why does it matter when it happened?
Suppose that dogs are 50-100 times further away from humans than chimps are. Further suppose that bacteria are more than 100 times further away from humans than dogs are. Why is one of those a reason to include chimps, and the other not a reason to include dogs. (Rocks are more than 100 times as different from humans than fungi are, right?) Rather than use relative closeness, I’m going to assert that absolute distance is important. (If that means that a typical human 400 years ago would not qualify now, I think it says more about them than it does about me; but I don’t think that is the case).
I also danced around and didn’t actually say that 90M:400 was the best prior; I said if I needed one quickly it’s the one I would use. To refine that number first requires refining the question.
Obviously I cannot cite a reference. This is an opinion. I take it you think less than half of the sum total of what has been discovered or learned was learned in the past 400 years? Your priors suggest you assume linear advance in thinking, but hominid cranial enlargement began only 1-2 million years ago. So you must also expect, as a prior, that the difference between humans and chimps is 1/90th − 1/45th of the difference between chimps and dogs. In that case, why exclude chimps from our society?
The maximum travel speed of humans today have travelled is about 7 miles per second. Assuming a travel rate of 0 miles per second 4 billion years ago, we do not conclude that bacteria were able to propel themselves 3.5 miles per second 2 billion years ago.
I don’t really think there’s been a change in humans. I think there are new tools available that help us think better, much like the new machines available that let us move fast.
You don’t believe that homind cranial enlargement is responsible for more than half of the difference between modern humans and dogs, so why does it matter when it happened?
Suppose that dogs are 50-100 times further away from humans than chimps are. Further suppose that bacteria are more than 100 times further away from humans than dogs are. Why is one of those a reason to include chimps, and the other not a reason to include dogs. (Rocks are more than 100 times as different from humans than fungi are, right?) Rather than use relative closeness, I’m going to assert that absolute distance is important. (If that means that a typical human 400 years ago would not qualify now, I think it says more about them than it does about me; but I don’t think that is the case).
I also danced around and didn’t actually say that 90M:400 was the best prior; I said if I needed one quickly it’s the one I would use. To refine that number first requires refining the question.