Brains on my mind...

Excellent article from Brain Connection

Okay, so my original post was November 4th, and it's now February 11th. I really do intend to make this a regular thing. I'm still not sure what my little blog will become, if it becomes anything at all. I don't expect that it will become anything special, or that it will get a lot of visitors. But, that's okay, I do this kind of thing for fun and to occupy my time. That leads me to a subject that's been rolling around in my brain for a while. And the following could be completely asinine. I am an amateur supposer after all.

I have this philosophy that humans do things, everything, aside from the things that we do to survive, because we're bored. From our greatest works of art, to our economies and everyday things like going to the movies; all of them, they're done because our brains have this insatiable need to be occupied with some task. I think that might be the greatest impetus for evolution. For some reason our brains are hardwired for the need to always be engaged in some activity.

Think about it, if that wasn't true, how far would we have evolved to this point? Say for instance that our brains only cared about being replenished with nutrients, and that for the rest of the time we had no concern about learning or exploring. Would we even still exist? Isn't the structure and function of our brains the thing that gave us a leg up on other species?

I would guess that our brains have evolved this way because we, along with our ancestors, had the need to out think larger and more aggressive species. And now that we are more sure of our safety and our next meal, the remnants of those evolved traits now need a new outlet of expression. I might be on the wrong track here, but my hypothesis is that the more adept a species is at hunting and surviving, the less developed the brain will be because of it.

I realize that that may seem counterintuitive because man is said to be the greatest hunter, and we have the most developed minds. But my reference is in regards to the pure physical and instinctive traits that are so advantageous to hunting and killing. For instance, a dinosaur that is a good hunter just by it's very nature, will not have a need to develop different skills besides those that it possesses by default. Yes, our ancestor wasn't the only species that wasn't equipped to be the best hunter, so why didn't the other species become smarter like us?

That's a question that I need to answer to my satisfaction.

I think the answer could be that we were lucky to have developed a larger cranial capacity over time along with a brain that was more able to evolve while similar primates, and other species, weren't as lucky and thus perished. And of course our ancestors were better positioned with a better equipped body than other animals to take advantage of our slowing growing intellect. In fact, it may very well be that our physical makeup is in large part the catalyst that caused our brains to evolve. It may be that it's no coincidence that out closet relative in the animal kingdom physically speaking, are also some of the most intelligent creatures.

In the end, the evolution of our brains strikes me as kind of a blessed curse. We made it this far because of our brains, but the intelligence that saved us is the same intelligence that makes us restless and apt to do harm to others; as well as occasionally depriving us of the ability to embrace for what it is, as opposed to what it could be. I guess your philosophy will determine if that restlessness is a desirable trait, something to be tolerated, or something to be avoided.

Of course without the destruction of the dinosaurs, we probably wouldn't be here anyway. I wonder, what would life be like now if they hadn't perished? And what will it be like the next time around? It may be that our species is a one in a million, and earth will never again see a similar serendipitous triumvirate of brain-body-environment once we have gone.

It makes you think...