Is it because of our intelligence? I think clearly it has something to do with it, but it’s very vague to me exactly how. Like, is it basically just we had a bit of spare capacity to develop some technology, and then we were in a positive feedback loop? I’m also confused by my understanding that humans are not undergoing significant selection for intelligence. And it seems like a smaller group of smarter humans would have done worse than a larger group of dumber humans for a lot of our history.
So is it because of cooperation? I think not. The eusocials (among hymenoptera or the naked mole rats) have us licked in that department.
One possibility is that the smarts, language and interaction just let us be a substrate for memes. In that picture humans are just powerful and in control of many resources because the stable memes that lead humans to spread widely and reproduce a lot also led us to be powerful
Cooperation + brain capacity = you can have complex memes.
Memes coevolve with biology. If stone axe is useful, then being too stupid to use a stone axe becomes evolutionary disadvantage. Memes bring technology; technology selects for the ability to use it… though not for the ability to invent it… but also for the ability to teach it. Compared to other species, humans are excellent teachers and learners.
An animal can invent a smart method to get food, but without the ability to teach it to kids, the invention is lost in long-term perspective. Probably happened to humans at the beginning, too; you need thousands of years to invent a stone axe not because it is such difficult invention, but because you have a long cycle of inventing, forgetting, inventing again, the know-how spreads to another tribe, the tribe loses the know-how, etc.
I imagine that humans were already on a better trajectory than other species before the invention of language. (You don’t need language to observe how other person makes a stone axe and learn by copying them.) Language probably became possible only after the coevolution with memes created sufficient general-purpose brain capacity. Then, of course, language accelerated the spread of memes to unprecedented levels.
Don’t discount our hands tho. It is what allowed the tool use and (perhaps more importantly) the initial use of fire to be in our control. A big brain means nothing if you can’t use it to manipulate the world around you and opposable thumbs gave humans the finesse to actualize their clever fantasies.
Why have humans done so well?
Is it because of our intelligence? I think clearly it has something to do with it, but it’s very vague to me exactly how. Like, is it basically just we had a bit of spare capacity to develop some technology, and then we were in a positive feedback loop? I’m also confused by my understanding that humans are not undergoing significant selection for intelligence. And it seems like a smaller group of smarter humans would have done worse than a larger group of dumber humans for a lot of our history.
So is it because of cooperation? I think not. The eusocials (among hymenoptera or the naked mole rats) have us licked in that department.
One possibility is that the smarts, language and interaction just let us be a substrate for memes. In that picture humans are just powerful and in control of many resources because the stable memes that lead humans to spread widely and reproduce a lot also led us to be powerful
Cooperation + brain capacity = you can have complex memes.
Memes coevolve with biology. If stone axe is useful, then being too stupid to use a stone axe becomes evolutionary disadvantage. Memes bring technology; technology selects for the ability to use it… though not for the ability to invent it… but also for the ability to teach it. Compared to other species, humans are excellent teachers and learners.
An animal can invent a smart method to get food, but without the ability to teach it to kids, the invention is lost in long-term perspective. Probably happened to humans at the beginning, too; you need thousands of years to invent a stone axe not because it is such difficult invention, but because you have a long cycle of inventing, forgetting, inventing again, the know-how spreads to another tribe, the tribe loses the know-how, etc.
I imagine that humans were already on a better trajectory than other species before the invention of language. (You don’t need language to observe how other person makes a stone axe and learn by copying them.) Language probably became possible only after the coevolution with memes created sufficient general-purpose brain capacity. Then, of course, language accelerated the spread of memes to unprecedented levels.
Don’t discount our hands tho. It is what allowed the tool use and (perhaps more importantly) the initial use of fire to be in our control. A big brain means nothing if you can’t use it to manipulate the world around you and opposable thumbs gave humans the finesse to actualize their clever fantasies.