my MIND just exploded, thanks for sharing
On 10/12/10, payne_brandon <payne_brandon_at_yahoo.ca> wrote:
> I once read in a magazine titled Scientific American about why we humans
> have no fur (cover story, The Naked Truth: Why Humans Have No Fur). It has
> to do with needing to shed excess body heat as our ape ancestors had to
> actively look and kill their food, instead of just having to forage for it
> (we humans actually have more endurance where heat is concerned because we
> won't overheat as readily as fur-bearing mammels will).
>
> As we became less furrier, our bodies got better at getting rid of heat.
> While that was happening, our brains began growing larger because there was
> no excess heat getting trapped to interfere with what is the most heat
> sensitive of organs. As our brains grew larger, we grew more sapient (there
> is actually a difference between sentient and sapient, with sentient meaning
> complex feelings and sapient meaning complex thought).
>
> What that means is that fur-bearing sapient beings would not be able to
> exist because their brains would overheat too readily.
>
> BUT . . . BUT . . . keeping reading . . .
>
> Also, according to an article in another issue of Scientific American, the
> human brain is showing signs of shrinkage in the species! Yet it's not going
> to lead to what we think it will lead to. There are species of birds whose
> brains make up 8% of their body weight, while the average human's brain
> makes up only 2.5% of their body weight. The Neanderthal never advanced
> beyond chipped rocks even though they had larger brains than us and were
> around a lot longer too (250,000 years when compared to 100,000 years for
> modern humans).
>
> According to the science, that means our neurons are merely growing more
> efficient (just like computer chips).
>
> So it can be possible for fur-bearing sapient beings to exist after all,
> just that their brains will need to start off with much more efficiency than
> the brains of our prehuman ancestors did if they are to keep their pelt on
> their road toward sapience.
>
> -Brandon Payne
>
>
--
Insanity has never brought me closer
Received on Tue Oct 12 2010 - 07:46:20 CDT