Emotional Morons and the Evolution of Cognition
I think that humans are like cars, where the accelerator and the brake are both pressed and the speed depends on the relative force used on both. The accelerator are the instincts for individual survival and for the survival of the species by breeding, the brake is the power of cognition counteracting and controlling the innate urges. The steering wheel is handled by culture and social influences.
Depending on individual differences, some people are more driven by instincts, like the breeders and hedonists, who become unpleasant any time for no more reason than that they are hungry and do not get food immediately. There are the childfree and the epicureans, who can get absorbed with intellectual and social joys and do not even notice, when they are hungry.
I think that humans are like cars, where the accelerator and the brake are both pressed and the speed depends on the relative force used on both. The accelerator are the instincts for individual survival and for the survival of the species by breeding, the brake is the power of cognition counteracting and controlling the innate urges. The steering wheel is handled by culture and social influences.
Depending on individual differences, some people are more driven by instincts, like the breeders and hedonists, who become unpleasant any time for no more reason than that they are hungry and do not get food immediately. There are the childfree and the epicureans, who can get absorbed with intellectual and social joys and do not even notice, when they are hungry.
Survival on the instinctive level does not require cognition, as long as a species survives in any habitat, where there are sufficient resources for the instinctive survival behaviors. That means, that by instinct, humans at any time during evolution could survive in appropriate surroundings independent of how far cognition had already developed.
This leads me to the idea, that maybe the intellectual, emotional and social development during childhood is a representation of human development during evolution. Due to the shorter life expectancy I will compare the level of maturity and intellectual achievements at the age of 25 and not the wisdom some people acquire at old age.
Studies of chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas comparing their social behavior, tool use etc sometimes compare them to have as adults roughly the mental age of a very young human child. The evolutionary split between the apes and homo sapiens has taken place several million years back. So maybe one million years ago, 25 year old adults of our ancestors could have reached the mental age of a child today of any age below ten. Maybe 500.000 years ago 25 year olds reached a mental age of an adolescent of today. Today in our complex society, a child of that age is helpless and unable to survive by itself. But in an adult body in those past times, the instincts guarantied survival, and the mental development was enhancing survival but not a necessity.
To speculate even more, I am wondering, if persons, who in our epoch remain immature or retarded in adulthood are maybe genetic relapses to an earlier phase of evolution. Maybe someone, who today appears as an emotional moron would have been a very average and fully adapted and successful caveman 100.000 years ago. Maybe in those days all humans were selfcentered, considered others as commodities, had not yet developed full empathy, abstract morals and emotions or a conscience and were guided by punishment and reward. Maybe even psychopaths are just cavemen living in the wrong time.
This leads me to the idea, that maybe the intellectual, emotional and social development during childhood is a representation of human development during evolution. Due to the shorter life expectancy I will compare the level of maturity and intellectual achievements at the age of 25 and not the wisdom some people acquire at old age.
Studies of chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas comparing their social behavior, tool use etc sometimes compare them to have as adults roughly the mental age of a very young human child. The evolutionary split between the apes and homo sapiens has taken place several million years back. So maybe one million years ago, 25 year old adults of our ancestors could have reached the mental age of a child today of any age below ten. Maybe 500.000 years ago 25 year olds reached a mental age of an adolescent of today. Today in our complex society, a child of that age is helpless and unable to survive by itself. But in an adult body in those past times, the instincts guarantied survival, and the mental development was enhancing survival but not a necessity.
To speculate even more, I am wondering, if persons, who in our epoch remain immature or retarded in adulthood are maybe genetic relapses to an earlier phase of evolution. Maybe someone, who today appears as an emotional moron would have been a very average and fully adapted and successful caveman 100.000 years ago. Maybe in those days all humans were selfcentered, considered others as commodities, had not yet developed full empathy, abstract morals and emotions or a conscience and were guided by punishment and reward. Maybe even psychopaths are just cavemen living in the wrong time.
