Hypothesis: domestication in pets is largely the result of selection for permanent childhood, so the pet never becomes fully autonomous and borrows top level intentions from parental authority. And homo sapiens is a domesticated hominid.
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Replying to @Plinz
It is a good hypothesis. Humans definitely show strong signs of neoteny. But autonomy is not necessarily hampered. I think the real reason is greater abstraction and generalisability, less adaptation to specific niches.
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I don't see it ; domestication presumably selected something, but if it feeds the kitties and keeps out predators what is childish? Playing, I suppose? But that must be quite recent, until 100ish yrs ago I guess domesticated mostly meant helping on the farm?
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Replying to @chrisfcarroll @vakibs
I think mammal infants are unable to make high level survival relevant decisions; their self lacks a top level which is borrowed from caring adults. This mode is signaled to the adults, which in turn have a compulsion for taking responsibility.
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Replying to @Plinz @chrisfcarroll
Neotenous adults are not infants. They don't require any care. They just have a morphology that helps them adapt better.
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Replying to @vakibs @chrisfcarroll
My point is that almost all human adults look neotenous when compared to premodern hominids. Most humans are uncomfortable or even dysfunctional outside of social group structures that offer them normative guidance, to which they trustfully submit.
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Replying to @Plinz @chrisfcarroll
Actually a chimp will not do very well if separated from its chimp society. We humans do remarkably well, mostly thanks to our capacity for abstract thinking and long childhood. We do quite ok even if we move across continents in adult life.This is what I meant by adaptability.
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I can also add that packs of wild dogs, separated from their human masters, are the most effective and dangerous hunters in the jungle.
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Especially since almost no jungle has any decent population of large mammalian predators left. Almost every land animal larger than a rabbit is either a human or a domestic animal now
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