tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post5856322079458380661..comments2024-02-29T03:57:00.088-05:00Comments on The Mermaid's Tale: Where has all the thinking gone....long time passing?Anne Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09212151396672651221noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-91961782572288674612018-10-19T16:38:44.608-04:002018-10-19T16:38:44.608-04:00I think that 'complex' is in the eye of th...I think that 'complex' is in the eye of the beholder in many ways. I am not qualified to judge whether we are more brain-wise 'complex' than an elephant or cat, though language makes us different at least. Anyway, each species has the complexity it needs, one might say.Ken Weisshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02049713123559138421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-59899671636667159282018-10-17T14:26:07.928-04:002018-10-17T14:26:07.928-04:00Thanks for your interaction, Ken. Perhaps culture ...Thanks for your interaction, Ken. Perhaps culture is part of "group selection." I'm not an academic. Just a retired dilettante! As to complexity, I was referring to our nervous systems, sense organs, and magnitude of language/concepts. We are likely to go extinct before many other species, so I'd not say we are the fittest, evolutionarily speaking! Steven B Kurtzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03545389243058689810noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-50372163628403366522018-10-17T10:17:01.615-04:002018-10-17T10:17:01.615-04:00Yes. But we have the mythology about ourselves, es...Yes. But we have the mythology about ourselves, especially in science to be 'objective' (so we in science seem to say). Whether we are the most complex, or just differently so is probably a matter of judgment (and vanity?). Selection works differently in us because of culture, and much more slowly because we are so globally dispersed and have been very isolated from each other until recently (but also because there are so many of us). As to 'all other social mammals', I guess that would be a matter of definition, discussion, and opinion, but I wouldn't want to argue about it without knowing more about what you have in mind. Ken Weisshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02049713123559138421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-33048328348021383292018-10-16T15:08:46.792-04:002018-10-16T15:08:46.792-04:00Are you saying that humans are different from all ...Are you saying that humans are different from all other social mammals? We are the most complex ones in the opinion of most biologists I'm aware of. Heredity and natural selection are operative in us as in other life forms. It seems to me that boundaries, predispositions, and parameters are present in humans whether or not it is PC to say so. We are not blank slates.Steven B Kurtzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03545389243058689810noreply@blogger.com