Is there evidence that culture is MORE important than adaptations? A reasonable person might be agnostic between explanations in the absence of evidence, rather than assuming it must be entirely one or the other.
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Replying to @TeaGeeGeePea @gcochran99 and
So Occam's Razor points to culture alone. But I grant that brain adaptation *could* have happened. I just don't see clear evidence of brain differences between populations.
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Replying to @RCownie @TeaGeeGeePea and
> I just don't see clear evidence of brain differences between populations. So differences in brain volume and neuron count just don't count? Or are those caused by "culture"?
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Replying to @CovfefeAnon @TeaGeeGeePea and
Cross off "skull caliper" again on second bingo card.
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Replying to @RCownie @CovfefeAnon and
Rather than linking to the essay on "bingo" again, I'm going to ask: what is your problem with measurement? Are you pro-ignorance?
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Replying to @TeaGeeGeePea @CovfefeAnon and
You're trying to make a triple bank-shot of invalid (or at best very weak) inferences: 1. No-one cares about brain volume in itself 2. You're claiming brain volume is correlated with IQ
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Replying to @RCownie @TeaGeeGeePea and
There's plenty of evidence re brain volume being causally correlated with IQ. You not knowing it is not a kind of evidence.
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Replying to @gcochran99 @RCownie and
Imagine a pop in which 60% of early deaths ( one that prevent or greatly reduce reproduction) are caused by factors that nobody understands and so can't influence, while in another pop, that number is only 40%.
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Replying to @gcochran99 @RCownie and
Do you think that intelligence would benefit fitness equally in both those populations?
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Replying to @gcochran99 @TeaGeeGeePea and
*If* "intelligence", whatever that means, helps reproductive fitness and is independent of disease risk, then it's equally useful to the surviving adults in both cases. If "intelligence" - changing genes are associated with disease-related genes.
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Wonderful - you've made a fully generalized counter argument against any animals having a different level of intelligence than humans Does intelligence help lions survive and reproduce? Of course Does it help wolves? Yep Apply the same reasoning you've applied to human groups
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Replying to @CovfefeAnon @gcochran99 and
No. I think the view of "intelligence" as a one-dimensional trait like weight is nonsensical. And I think that having the cognitive capabilities for language and for learning and conforming to the knowledge and rules of a culture is really important.
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Replying to @RCownie @CovfefeAnon and
But outside and beyond that, it's not clear that it gives a selective advantage (in the subsistence farming/ pastoralist cultures of the vast majority of our ancestors).
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