Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!mailrus!cornell!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!cadre!cww
From: cww@cadre.dsl.PITTSBURGH.EDU (Charles William Webster)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Thought/Emotion/Feeling
Message-ID: <1853@cadre.dsl.PITTSBURGH.EDU>
Date: 9 Dec 88 08:20:33 GMT
References: <569@epicb.UUCP> <1146@arctic.nprdc.arpa>
Reply-To: cww@cadre.dsl.pittsburgh.edu (Charles William Webster)
Organization: Decision Systems Lab., Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA.
Lines: 28

In article <1146@arctic.nprdc.arpa> bickel@nprdc.arpa (Steven Bickel) writes:
[stuff deleted]
>   From what I have read concerning evolutionary development of
>   cognition: intelligence developed because humans discovered that 
>   forms of farming were far more productive and life sustaining
>   than gathering. Farming required more thought and therefore 
>   increases in thought were supported as an evolutionary trend.
>
>   Steve Bickel

One theory (not a main-stream one) put forth by a physical
anthropologist in Europe is that the use of our neocortex for
higher cognition is a case of pre-adaption.  That is, the highly
parallel and interconnected cortex evolved for some other purpose
than the cognitive abilities we are so proud of.  His
candidate for this other ability is the resistance to damage that
parallelism buys.  In physical abilities man does not compare
particularly favorably with selected other animals, except
the stamina for the long distance running necessary to
tire prey out, and then dispatch them.  Even small increases in
temperature can disable a nervous system.  Sustained physical
activity creates heat.  Greater parallelism provides the redundancy
to withstand the misfunctions of individual neurons in the brain
due to their hot mileu.  Once we had all this extra nervous
tissue, it eventually got put to "better" use.  There is something
almost poetic about this account.  It's neat to run and contemplate,
and realize that the two may be profoundly connected.  
--Chuck