Well i know very little about this topic, but i think some of you maybe could clear this up for me. When did humans break off from being animal like, and how did all these different personality traits get here? if we come from primitive ancestors, how did we break off from them and get all these different personalities in people?
two views: ONE: Humans never 'broke off' from animals, they merely have spent a lot of time thinking up reasons that they are superior. most are not even true (Many animals are intelligent, empathetic, capable of using tools, use other animals for their own advantage). humans are extremely empathetic (most primates will kill eachother as soon as look at eachother), and would (and in my case at least, do) bond with their prey, facilitating a need to distance themselves (it's easier to kill something when you don't think it has the same right to live as you do). TWO: with the advent and widespread use of tools, mankind has (in evolutionary terms) catapulted to the top of the food chain over night. this meant that his numbers exploded, and large scale communites were formed (people who once lived in tribes with two or three families now lived in towns with hundreds). Freud thought (with some correctness) that in order for these newly formed communities to thrive, people would have to behave themselves. enter society. EDIT: Humans have not substantially evolved in the past 50,000 years (we don't die as often as we used too), basically, you have the same brain your "primitive" ancestor had, you just use it differently...
There are 3 setient species on earth. Humans , Chimps and Orangetangs. The only claim we have to 'breaking off' is that we love tools. And the power they give us. Our fav is the opposable thumb. The next is reason. Maybe Chimps and Orangetangs. Dont have the real thing that makes humans different. AN OVERWEENING EGO. Occam
According to Buddhism, all beings that have the ability to breathe and/or move around to continue its existence are sentient. This includes insects, and microbes ... What do you equate sentience, Occam? Edit ------- I have my doubts about microbes because almost all the teachings of Buddhism have to do with six senses for those beings living in the sense sphere, and microbes would only quite possibly have two; tactile, and a mind. ----------- HTML:
I heard a theory that the australopithecines (pre-humans) in africa had a diet that was extremely rich in brain proteins, because the brain was the only bit left inside the skull of wildebeest etc. after the carcass had been ravaged by lions, vultures and stuff. Pre-humans were scavengers and survived by being very adaptable. This, plus the extra brain nutrients and the opposable thumbs enabled them to take the leap to become humans. A different account of what happened can be found in the book of genesis with adam and eve, but that's very metaphorical. They ate of the tree of the fruit of knowledge of good and evil (which was forbidden by god). That suddenly made them aware that they were naked (ie. became consciously human as opposed to animal). Because of this, god punished them by making them suffer in life, unlike the animals. that's all I know about it really.
hm fruit is the shit man, specially from a forbidden tree. anyways i know were animals, but when did we start talking and all that shit?
as one who beleives in evolution... id say neanderthalls were driven into extinction by modern (like) human beings through infiltration and basically outsmarting them, simply because they were too stupid, ate all the food and had a different way of doing things (because thats the way they learned it, wich shows variety in one way)...wich can only create branches on a tree called human knowledge. heres an illustration.... like, if one group of chimps had to outsmart their prey instead of just running like hell to get it, wile another group on the other side of a country is eating bugs and banannas ( and monkeys do eat meat ), the animal (prey) that escaped from the human beings were genetically better than ones that die for the same reason, so the chimps have to create new and better ways of doing things, and the ones that do will reproduce also..... i could probably elaborate on ideas like religion and technology but meh.....im lazy and you might want to take a look at this.....its verry interesting http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022201007.html
No one knows. It is wide open. In recent genetic articles, it listed the time of the original Homo Sapiens Sapiens, just the same as you and I, was born around 250 000 years ago. So, that could have been when talking began, or they may have had language earlier. By then, the person was just like us, so they may have had all we do. In some studies, some Neanderthal DNA appears to have survived in us. But who can say that in the millions of years prior, no hominid reached as high a level? I am of the view we are animals, not above any others, but responsible for their welfare due to our position of power. We are better off being stewards, looking after the garden, not overlords exploiting our dominion over all.
Wikipedia says, 25 MYA Proconsul Catarrhini splits into 2 superfamilies, Old World monkeys (Cercopithecoidea) and apes (Hominoidea). Proconsul was an early genus of catarrhine primates. They had a mixture of Old World monkey and ape characteristics. Proconsul's monkey-like features include thin tooth enamel, a light build with a narrow chest and short forelimbs, and an arboreal quadrupedal lifestyle. Its ape-like features are its lack of a tail, ape-like elbows, and a slightly larger brain relative to body size. Proconsul africanus is a possible ancestor of both great and lesser apes, and humans. -and- 15 MYA Human ancestors speciate from the ancestors of the gibbon (lesser apes). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_human_evolution
animals don't need to talk, because they are able to intuit everything they need to know to survive in their natural environment. Humans must've had to communicate at a higher level than intuitive knowledge because their environment changed or they left their natural habitat for newer pastures. Which came first? The changed environment caused them to develop speech, or they developed speech and that allowed them to change environment? I think the extra brain nutrients is still a good theory because extra brainpower could just be random side-effect of the hominids peculiar diet. All other animals occupy very particular ecological niches, eg. eat nothing but eucalyptus leaves etc. but hominids fitted in the niche of the adaptable, omnivorous scavenger. So, basically, I think it was just the innevitable zenith of evolution. Also, possibly the inevitable end of evolution, because since we started to talk and move further and further away from our relationship with nature, I think our race has started to degenerate and become weak. Maybe the advent of speech was the birth and death-nell of the disease called humanity. - Jeez!, it must be late. Maybe I should go to bed.
I agree with your theory that our race is starting to degenerate, because there is no longer any real selective pressure on our species. In older times, people with a serious genetic defect would die from birth, now we have all sorts of ways of helping them survive (wich I believe is a good thing, since everyone that is born has the right to a humane life). I think that we still are animals, we will always be animals, and we have always been animals. Because of our continuously growing brain-size, and (possibly the most important factor) the ability to walk up straight, giving us the advantage of having two free hands to use! Because that, we were 'given' a selective advantage. Also I believe that the human species isn't the ending point of evolution.
Snake Cyborgs.. We wil become whatever we wish to be . We now control the lower regions of evolution, the mechanics. We will make ourselves adapaptable And not rely on natural selection Colonies of humans at south pole with no thermal gear. Cyborgs. Colonies of humans in marianas trench with no pressure gear. Cyborgs. Colonies of humans at lunar base without space suits A self regulating integration of natural and artifical systems. Biology integrated with our machine technology. It's happining now. Occam
