September 12, 2005--"Brain May Still Be Evolving"!!
When I saw this article in the NY Times, I said, “Thank God.” Or if you prefer, “Thank Evolution.” Because our brains could sure use some more evolving.
It seems that researchers have discovered that two genes involved in determining brain size have done some evolving recently, that is during the past 60,000 years. This is good news since it had been assumed that the brain stopped evolving 50,000 years ago. In effect, Evolution or the Intelligent Designer had determined that our brains had reached a certain level of perfection.
I had always considered that to be depressing news. If the human brain had stopped evolving 50 millennia ago that would mean that in some ways we had stalled out at the hunter-gatherer, Stone Age stage. Of course that would help explain much of what is happening in the world: Though parts of our brain invented “civilization” and science and technology and air conditioning, other parts of our brains were still hunting and gathering. Gathering in a current context may explain things such as pre-emptive wars, and hunting of course can easily have been transmuted into murder and mayhem.
Thus, when I saw the headline, “Brain May Still Be Evolving,” I thought, minimally, this news would make my weekend. But then I read further.
It appears that we are talking here about just two genes. That in itself should not be a problem because even one gene, if evolving in a good direction, could make a very big difference in human capacities and behavior. For example, maybe one of these newly evolved genes might strengthen the Altruism Gene. But alas no such luck.
In fact, they do not as yet know what these changes might be contributing. But if other recent findings about genetic changes are a guide, we may be disappointed by the implications of this new news. The previous examples of further brain evolution apparently were primarily to “confer the ability to digest milk in adulthood.”
Now do not get me wrong, I have nothing against the work of that powerful Washington-based Dairymen’s Association. But really, if you are going to lobby for something, how about to have the brain evolve in a more significant direction—say toward the enhanced human capacity to digest pizza?
It seems that researchers have discovered that two genes involved in determining brain size have done some evolving recently, that is during the past 60,000 years. This is good news since it had been assumed that the brain stopped evolving 50,000 years ago. In effect, Evolution or the Intelligent Designer had determined that our brains had reached a certain level of perfection.
I had always considered that to be depressing news. If the human brain had stopped evolving 50 millennia ago that would mean that in some ways we had stalled out at the hunter-gatherer, Stone Age stage. Of course that would help explain much of what is happening in the world: Though parts of our brain invented “civilization” and science and technology and air conditioning, other parts of our brains were still hunting and gathering. Gathering in a current context may explain things such as pre-emptive wars, and hunting of course can easily have been transmuted into murder and mayhem.
Thus, when I saw the headline, “Brain May Still Be Evolving,” I thought, minimally, this news would make my weekend. But then I read further.
It appears that we are talking here about just two genes. That in itself should not be a problem because even one gene, if evolving in a good direction, could make a very big difference in human capacities and behavior. For example, maybe one of these newly evolved genes might strengthen the Altruism Gene. But alas no such luck.
In fact, they do not as yet know what these changes might be contributing. But if other recent findings about genetic changes are a guide, we may be disappointed by the implications of this new news. The previous examples of further brain evolution apparently were primarily to “confer the ability to digest milk in adulthood.”
Now do not get me wrong, I have nothing against the work of that powerful Washington-based Dairymen’s Association. But really, if you are going to lobby for something, how about to have the brain evolve in a more significant direction—say toward the enhanced human capacity to digest pizza?
posted by Steven Zwerling at
11:15 AM
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