My Family and other Animals

[Graybeard]

Is the Family of Man just another species on this Planet, like all the other Species ?

Or is their something 'beyond' in man ?

Some rare gift that separates us from all the others and makes us special.

Other creatures display sentience, agility, skilled abilities with they're natural tools .... claws, teeth, strength, arms, legs, etc. We don't appear to carry any particular trait that is unique to us, and us alone ... every trait we lay claim to appears to be shared by other species to a greater or lesser extent.

In nearly every physical endevour, there are other creatures that can outperform us.

• Cheetahs can run the 100m sprint faster
• elephants are stronger
• birds can fly
• jumping spiders and peregrines can see further and clearer
• dogs can smell better
• pound for pound nearly every other species is stronger physically than us.

We 'think' better than all other species, or do we just think we 'think' better than all other species. We are the only judges of the competition, we award the prizes .... on the face of it we judge ourselves as better thinkers entirely subjectively.

All creatures have attributes developed thru natural selection that they excel in. So do we.

It appears that ours is a large brain ... but should we award it the ultimate accolade of:

1 .. Separate and distinct entity to our biological self. Almost God given in its mystery. A communal entity. Could not possibly have been created thru a process of random natural selection.

Or should we treat it as

2.. A natural evolutionary development... No different to others, received thru no fault or application of our own .... just to take its place and to be used by its owner, the way all other creatures use their attributes. Without fanfare, without fuss .... ??

I believe number 2. It should just take it's place in the system and work to the best of its abilities to further life.

cool bananas ... greg

[austintorn@aol.com]

Replay

DNA is another proof of evolution.
It remembers all the successes,
Then plays them back during gestation.


The Only ‘Commandment’

Ever back through the Ages went I,
Dating rocks and old fossils, by and by,
And found this tablet stone, the Covenant
Of the one and only engraven Commandment:


(It said):

Natural History

The Commandments of Evolution are unmistakably
Engraved in stone for everyone to see.
There are no “if’s”, “and’s”, or “but’s” in these pages,
For we can even date these rocks of ages.


Current Complications

Life is complicated,
It taking thousands of different
Types of molecules to make a person,
Because it has been
Pieced together by evolution,
Borrowing whatever worked
From whatever ingredients
Were handy to pull off the shelf at the time.

[Graybeard]

2 votes ......... Austin ... so far where 100% ahead on points ..... lol ...

cool bananas ... greg

[leskey]

While the act of creating is a conscious process, procreation is instictive to all life.

What is instinct? It is a natural or inherent impulse, capacity, and aptitude.



IMUPULSE:

• inspiration, motivation
• a force so communicated as to produce motion suddenly
• incentive
• the act of driving onward with sudden force : impulsion
• motion produced by such an impulsion : impetus
• a wave of excitation transmitted through tissues and especially nerve fibers and muscles that results in physiological activity or inhibition
• a sudden spontaneous inclination or incitement to some usually unpremeditated action
• a propensity or natural tendency usually other than rational
• the product of the average value of a force and the time during which it acts : the change in momentum produced by the force
• pulse

synonyms see motive


CAPACITY:

• the potential or suitability for holding, storing, or accommodating
• the maximum amount or number that can be contained or accommodated
• an individual's mental or physical ability : aptitude, skill
• the faculty or potential for treating, experiencing, or appreciating <capacity for love>
• duty, postion, role
• the facility or power to produce, perform, or deploy : capability
• capacitance: the property of an electric nonconductor that permits the storage of energy as a result of the separation of charge that occurs when opposite surfaces of the nonconductor are maintained at a difference of potential : the measure of this property that is equal to the ratio of the charge on either surface to the potential difference between the surfaces : a part of a circuit or network that possesses capacitance

APTITUDE:

• inclination, tendency <an aptitude for hard work>
• a natural ability : talent
• capacity for learning <an aptitude for languages>
• general suitability : aptness

synonyms see gift


So there is the motivation or drive which resulted in a suitable vessel of some capacity, in order to deliver a gift.



CONSCIOUS:

• sharing another's knowledge or awareness of an inward state or outward fact
• personally felt
• capable of or marked by thought, will, design, or perception

This can be interpreted and applied on a number of differing levels, but to make it relevent to the proposal here, conscious will (by whatever label) was resonsible for the big bang which created space in order to deliver the gift of procreation: conscious sentience.

The law of conservation of energy states that the total amount of energy in an isolated system remains constant over time. As a consequence of this law, energy in a closed system cannot be created nor destroyed, only change form. I believe this can also be said of knowledge/information/data and can also be applied to human intellect, eg. two people can be privvy to identical information, but chose to utlize it in entirely different ways in order to have an effect.

It's purported that in the current era, language is inadequate to convey meaning. IMO, language is adequate, it is the extent of vocabulary and comprehension that is lacking...and the reason why in the face of so much information, many still remain ignorant.

So, the delivery of intellect is the inherent consequence, not just of the human brain, but of its designer...which means, I'm unable to vote.

[labelwench]

In conversation with my Mother over lunch today, we were discussing that that attribute of good decision making does not appear to have much relationship to intelligence.

As the species with the largest proportionate brain weight, homo sapiens has made, and continues to make, questionable calls.

Still, it's the only game in town....


When did humans evolve such huge brains?

Hominid brains have evolved and grown from 400g 3-4 million years, to their present size of 1400g (1.4kg).



The bodies of Homo erectus (1.7 million years ago) were not substantially smaller than humans of the last century, yet their brains were nearly half the size.




There are lots of questions about brain evolution that scientists are still working on – but there is overwhelming evidence that brain complexity and ‘intelligence’ are hugely beneficial in an evolutionary sense.


Brain evolution and babies brains

More intelligent mammals such as dolphins, chimps and humans have highly convoluted brains compared to the smooth brains of less intelligent animals.



However, intelligence is also related to how big an animal’s brain is relative to its body size.




Interestingly, as we developed in our mother’s womb our brains also had a smooth surface until 6 months, developing convolutions before birth.


This picture shows three model brains.

http://www.youramazingbrain.org/Insi...nevolution.htm

The smallest is a premature baby’s brain (at 26 weeks), the middle is a newborn baby’s brain and the largest is an adult’s fully-grown brain.



Premature babies are born with a smooth brain, and the convolutions develop in the few months after birth.




Why has consciousness evolved?

This question continues to puzzle scientists. Why is it that humans have an awareness of their own existence, and why does this give an evolutionary advantage? Perhaps consciousness is needed to make sense of what you see.



There is still huge debate over which animals are conscious.

[labelwench]

The topic of this thread being 'My Family And Other Animals", I am going to insert this piece about ants and their proportionate brain size. If you do not wish insects allowed in the discussion, feel free to moderate the post.

Interestingly, ant species that live in larger colonies are observed to have larger brains...

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT ANTS

If a man could run as fast for his size as an ant can, he could run as fast as a racehorse.
Ants can lift 20 times their own body weight.
With their combined weight greater than the combined weight of all humans, ants are the most numerous type of animal.
An ant brain has about 250 000 brain cells. A human brain has 10,000 million so a colony of 40,000 ants has collectively the same size brain as a human. Ant brains are largest amongst insects. An ant's brain may have the same processing power as a Macintosh II computer. Thousands of years ago, King Solomon wrote: "Go to the ant, consider its ways and be wise".
The average life expectancy of an ant is 45-60 days.
Adult ants cannot chew and swallow solid food. They rely on juice which they squeeze from pieces of food.
The abdomen of the ant contains two stomachs. One stomach holds the food for itself and second stomach is for food to be shared with other ants. There are over 10000 known species of ants.
Some worker ants are given the job of taking the rubbish from the nest and putting it outside in a special rubbish dump.
Some birds put ants in their feathers because the ants squirt formic acid which gets rid of the parasites. The Slave-Maker Ant (Polyergus Rufescens) raids the nests of other ants and steals their pupae. When these new ants hatch,they work as slaves within the colony.
If a worker ant has found a good source for food, it leaves a trail of scent so that the other ants in the colony can find the food.
Army Ants are nomadic and they are always moving. They carry their larvae and their eggs with them in a long column.
The Army Ant (Ecitron Burchelli) of South America, can have as many as 700,000 members in its colony. The Leaf Cutter Ants cut out pieces of leaves which they take back to their nests.

Wood ant workers live seven to ten years.
The queen ant lives up to ten or twenty years.
The wood ant can threaten the enemy with open jaws.
There are thirty-five thousand kinds of ants in the world.
Some ants sleep seven hours a day.
Ants are normally from 2 to 7 mm long, although carpenter ants can stretch to 2 cm, or almost an inch.
Some ants care for and "farm" other insects.

[austintorn@aol.com]

This can be interpreted and applied on a number of differing levels, but to make it relevent to the proposal here, conscious will (by whatever label) was resonsible for the big bang which created space in order to deliver the gift of procreation: conscious sentience. — Leskey

So, the delivery of intellect is the inherent consequence, not just of the human brain, but of its designer... —Leskey

Personally, I would take this 'designer' to mean evolution, a design without a designer; for, if some would see it as a 'Designer', then that Brain, too, would have needed a DESIGNER before it, etc,—and so this doesn't hold up since it runs into its own definition as a problem. 'Religious' theories stop too soon, declaring an 'answer' but they have really only posed a very much larger question of that which was the very 'problem' in the first place.

[leskey]

This can be interpreted and applied on a number of differing levels, but to make it relevent to the proposal here, conscious will (by whatever label) was resonsible for the big bang which created space in order to deliver the gift of procreation: conscious sentience. — Leskey

So, the delivery of intellect is the inherent consequence, not just of the human brain, but of its designer... —Leskey

Personally, I would take this 'designer' to mean evolution, a design without a designer; for, if some would see it as a 'Designer', then that Brain, too, would have needed a DESIGNER before it, etc,—and so this doesn't hold up since it runs into its own definition as a problem. 'Religious' theories stop too soon, declaring an 'answer' but they have really only posed a very much larger question of that which was the very 'problem' in the first place.

Point noted, Austin...let's leave off the 'er,' since it's used to express hesitation .

Provided a plan, purpose or intention to refine information to achieve the most desirable outcome is acknowledged, the details pre-conception are beyond our reckoning and must be at the liberty of individual, personal choice. Further, this privilege of choice should not in any way become insitutionalized in order to marshall power. Acknowledgement of and adherence to the 'mission statement' by the individual, will ensure the fair, reasonable and equitable distribution of power across all humanity.

Adoption of this 'mission statement' must inevitably result in the total re-design of the methods of human interaction and open new avenues for the co-operative advancement of human endeavour.

[austintorn@aol.com]

er… hope so, but, if not, nature may turn to the promise of the ants or some other species, humans becoming a tiny footnote in the annals of natural history. In this thread, I'm just considering the poll question.

[leskey]

er… hope so, but, if not, nature may turn to the promise of the ants or some other species, humans becoming a tiny footnote in the annals of natural history. In this thread, I'm just considering the poll question.

OK...then my response is 4, but I have explained why.