"The reduction in brain size may be proof that we have tamed ourselves,
just as we domesticated sheep, pigs, and cattle, all of which are
smaller-brained than their wild ancestors. The more I learn, the more
baffled I become that news of our shrinking brain has been so
underplayed, not just in the media but among scientists. "It's strange,
I agree," says Christopher Stringer, a paleoanthropologist and expert on
human origins at the Natural History Museum in London. "Scientists
haven't given the matter the attention it deserves. Many ignore it or
consider it an insignificant detail."
...an unpleasant possibility. "You may not want to hear this," says
cognitive scientist David Geary of the University of Missouri, "but I
think the best explanation for the decline in our brain size is the
idiocracy theory." Geary is referring to the eponymous 2006 film by Mike
Judge about an ordinary guy who becomes involved in a hibernation
experiment at the dawn of the 21st century. When he wakes up 500 years
later, he is easily the smartest person on the dumbed-down planet. "I
think something a little bit like that happened to us," Geary says. In
other words, idiocracy is where we are now."
http://discovermagazine.com/2010/sep/25-modern-humans-smart-why-brain-sh
rinking/article_view?b_start%3Aint=0&-C
0 comments:
Post a Comment