Evolution of Intelligence More Complex Than Once Thought 453
palegray.net writes "According to a new article published in Scientific American, the nature of and evolutionary development of animal intelligence is significantly more complicated than many have assumed. In opposition to the widely held view that intelligence is largely linear in nature, in many cases intelligent traits have developed along independent paths. From the article: 'Over the past 30 years, however, research in comparative neuroanatomy clearly has shown that complex brains — and sophisticated cognition — have evolved from simpler brains multiple times independently in separate lineages ...'"
Intelligent Design proof... (Score:5, Funny)
This proves that the Intelligent Designer:
- has never been taught of proper design practice and re-use of previous work
- has been sued by the other intelligent designer who built the previous brain for patent infringement and thus couldn't use the same brain but had to built a new one
- is so messy that instead of trying to dig again her/his/its plans of the previous (intelligent) design for brains somewhere under a mountain of junk, restarting everything from scratch is a better alternative
- isn't meticulous and precise enough be succeed making the same brain twice in a row
- is so bored the she/he/it needs to reinvent the wheel every week or so
- has Alzheimer's disease
Re:Intelligent Design proof... (Score:1, Funny)
whooooooooooooooooooooooosh
guess what that sound is?
Re:The hard work is just around the corner... (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe I am not as smart as I thought I was.
Re:Wow, evolution (Score:5, Funny)
I don't believe it would take a God to steer evolution; based on all available evidence, it would take a God to stop it.
Hence, the bible belt.
Re:Intelligent Design proof... (Score:2, Funny)
whooooooooooooooooooooooosh guess what that sound is?
Hold tight, someone will be along to change your diaper soon.
Re:The hard work is just around the corner... (Score:4, Funny)
Too many captchas generate unreadable garbage, requiring you to waste time by refreshing the page (and re-entering passwords, etc.). I have seriously considered searching for whatever it is spammers use to beat captchas and download it for myself.
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
Re:The hard work is just around the corner... (Score:3, Funny)
I believe they are usually referred to as "Indians".
Re:Linearity in Complexity???!!! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Wow, evolution (Score:4, Funny)
I'm curious, assuming you really don't "believe in evolution," what do you believe stops it? Leptons and quarks organize themselves into atoms, atoms into molecules, molecules into amino acids and peptide chains.
I dropped a petitde chain this morning the size of a small baryonic particle. At one point, I wasn't sure if I was taking physics, or if the physics was taking me. And while I'm on that point, what's the deal with studying physics? Shouldn't it be physically studying? I'm certainly not taking anything with me when I'm done.
But back on topic, that dude's argument didn't make any sense, so why did you even respond?
Recanted (Score:3, Funny)
But Vista changed my opinion about that.
Re:You kid, but... (Score:5, Funny)
Go tell that to him [wikipedia.org], but he won't be happy.
Disclaimer: he doesn't shoot the bearer of bad tidings, but he will eat his soul.
Re:You kid, but... (Score:3, Funny)
Note that many organisms survive very nicely with no brain at all.
Commence republicans/neocons jokes in 3... 2... 1...
Re:Wow, evolution (Score:3, Funny)
What barriers do you propose might exist that prevent one ancestral population from diverging into two arbitrarily-different ones?
If an individual strays too far genetically, God drops a rock on it.
Re:I don't believe it. (Score:3, Funny)
Just look where it was published. The phrases "military intelligence" and "plastic silverware" spring to mind.
Re:You kid, but... (Score:2, Funny)
I'm tired of you people picking on Bush. It's over for crying out loud.
Re:You forgot... (Score:3, Funny)
- is just another damn Perl hacker and enjoys exploring different ways of accomplishing the same thing.
FTFY.
Re:Wow, evolution (Score:2, Funny)
Re:You kid, but... (Score:5, Funny)
Why don't Republicans believe in Evolution?
Because the first generation in their sample was Abraham Lincoln. The last was George W. Bush.
Re:The hard work is just around the corner... (Score:3, Funny)
Excuse me! I believe the proper term is Outsourced-American.
Re:My cats are little people (Score:3, Funny)
John McCain, of course, because he's a fat cat himself and gives free room and board to another cat. And then there's this...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wguQGP4p-Dk [youtube.com]
Re:Wow, evolution (Score:3, Funny)