• Question: when humans evolved why did we advance in technology when other apes haven't ?

    Asked by fraser1999118 to Andrew, Aggelos, Eileen, Naomi, Shane on 13 Nov 2012. This question was also asked by bubulis.
    • Photo: Andrew Jackson

      Andrew Jackson answered on 13 Nov 2012:

      hi. great question and one i have been researching recently.

      One of the ideas is that the societies of our ancestral apes that we came from, became really complex. In order to remember who is who, and who was nice and who was nasty, we developed larger brains to cope with this challenge. Then, we used our brains to do other clever stuff like make tools and cook food which meant we could develop even bigger, smarter brains. This gave us a huge advantage over the other apes, and so now we dominate the world.

      The other argument kind of goes the otehr way. This version says we developed tools, which gave us an advantage that let us use our food more efficiently so we built bigger brains. The our society got complicated and our brains got even bigger.

      I think its too hard to separate the two things, and i think both happened pretty much at the same time. Some of our most recent research has shown that the need to remember things that happen to you in a social group (the first option above) is enough to explain why our brains got bigger in the first place.

      I love that we can ask questions about the very origins of what makes us human by studying both the apes and monkeys, but also by building computer programs and using mathematics to test our ideas.

    • Photo: Eileen Diskin

      Eileen Diskin answered on 16 Nov 2012:

      That’s a really good question! Andrew does a great job of answering it. I think most of it’s just that we’re lucky that we have really big brains compared to the others….which allowed us to develop tools (very basic ones at first, like some other apes use)…and now today we have things like mobiles, tvs, cars…its amazing!

    • Photo: Naomi Elster

      Naomi Elster answered on 17 Nov 2012:

      Fantastic question, especially as there are animals – like monkeys and dolphins – who may well be as intelligent as us. Some say the reason that we have advanced so much compared to other animals is technology rather than intelligence. Andrew’s given a great answer, and I agree with him that it’s hard to separate the two theories. It will be interesting for future generations to see if eventually, other apes do go on to develop technology of their own – while it seems like a fantastic concept, they do make and use primitive tools.

      Some say dolphins are as intelligent as us, but I’m not sure if this is true. Dolphins however have a huge evolutionary disadvantage over primates – they don’t have opposable thumbs, which makes it difficult for them to develop tools. But as Douglas Adams (author of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) said:

      “On the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much – the wheel, New York, wars and so on – whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man – for precisely the same reasons.”

Comments

  • Photo: tosty55

    tosty55 commented on :

    Well I do not believe in Evolution as it is just a load of nonsense Charles Darwin, an ordinary person, probably a religious person, and a follower of God made up as a “theory”, Someone saying we, Human beings, the image of God, evolved from Apes is ridicules, are you saying when God created Adam, he made him an ape?, by which you are saying God looks like an ape since in the spiritual world, aging and all of this evolution is not present. Of course we all have different views, some have extreme views, as such of Evolution, but nevertheless we should all remember why each one of us are here, we are here to spread God’s word. As regarding your question, I guess because they are just Monkeys.

  • Photo: Andrew

    Andrew commented on :

    The evidence that humans evolved from apes is very strong indeed. You can find all the skulls and skeletons of the major steps in many museums around the world.

    You are right though, Charles Darwin was a very religious man. He really struggled with the findings he made, and the consequences it had for what he had been taught as a child and young man. Eventually though, he realised that the evidence in front of him was so strong that he overcame his belief that god created man. I think he kept on believing in a god, but not that god created man. So, i guess for him and indeed many other people, it is possible to believe in a god, and also accept that the earth is 4.5 billion years old and that mankind evolved like every other animal and that our closest ancestors are the apes.