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No One Knows Why Humans Can Walk

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Re: No One Knows Why Humans Can Walk

#41

Post by flukus »

coenhyde wrote: post #5

I like the water ape theory. ie we had a period of time in our history where we spent a lot of time in low lying water that encouraged us to stand upright. There's a few things which point in this direction. iirc we're the only primate which can control its breath; good for swimming under water. Our fingers wrinkle when we spend time in water; good for picking things up in water. And we lost our hair; hair may have g…

I like the water ape theory in the romantic sense, but it's important to remember that it's pseudo science.

It's fun to think of the ramifications though. Are/can we look for human fossils in the right places? How much of our history is potentially under water and not African caves. Did it help spur fire usage so that we could safely eat fish? Did it influence the out of Africa migration which was mostly coastal (we got to Australia before Europe)?

It probably didn't affect our evolution much but I suspect a lot more of our pre-history was spent at least on the shallow ocean than we have evidence for.

Re: No One Knows Why Humans Can Walk

#42

Post by hyperpallium »

RichEO wrote: post #37
hyperpallium wrote: post #29

What was the evolutionary pressure that made us intelligent - could it be ranged attack ? First, what I'm calling the Geo-Fermi Paradox - why are we the only intelligent animal on Earth? Sure, it has advantages - but other animals would gain those advantages too. So why didn't they become intelligent (or, at least, more intelligent) too? Sure, there was climate-change in Africa that rewarded adaptivity - but why didn…

I believe there is some evidence to suggest that we have not always been the sole intelligent species on the planet. Notably there is some speculation that Neanderthals were of equal or similar intelligence to early humans

Perhaps arguing semamtics, but Neanderthals (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal) were "human": could interbreed, and had Lucy etc as common ancestors.

Re: No One Knows Why Humans Can Walk

#44

Post by GarrisonPrime »

hyperpallium wrote: post #39
im3w1l wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we consider other hominids, we don't know exactly, but it seems we outcompeted them. If we consider more distant animals, because we converted the entire planet to provide for us much faster than they could evolve to catch up with us.

I think that's the "we just happened to be first" argument. Which could be true, but not very satisfying, because no detail.

Just because there's no detail, or it's not satisfying, doesn't mean it's less likely.

Re: No One Knows Why Humans Can Walk

#45

Post by rriepe »

NateEag wrote: post #30
ARandomerDude wrote: post #18

Wonder no more. Genesis 1:26-27 ESV Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." [27] So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

I'm a Christian, but I don't think that passage means human biology is based on God's. God the Father is clearly not in a physical form throughout the Bible. I believe that's why "graven images" are forbidden in the Ten Commandments, as they'd mislead people into thinking of him as a physical being. God the Father as depicted in the Bible is closer to an omnipresent, omniscient mind that runs the universe as a simula…

The image of God as a big man in the clouds comes from two sources: Renaissance paintings and The Simpsons. I'm not kidding. I've thought a lot about this.

Another "in his image" interpretation I've heard is that it's something of a mistranslation. That it's more like "in his imagination" or "he imagined/conceived us" than "we look like him." That's the one I've always gone by, but I like your take too.

Re: No One Knows Why Humans Can Walk

#46

Post by rriepe »

hyperpallium wrote: post #29

What was the evolutionary pressure that made us intelligent - could it be ranged attack ? First, what I'm calling the Geo-Fermi Paradox - why are we the only intelligent animal on Earth? Sure, it has advantages - but other animals would gain those advantages too. So why didn't they become intelligent (or, at least, more intelligent) too? Sure, there was climate-change in Africa that rewarded adaptivity - but why didn…

This article glosses over it but I think the answer is cooking. Cooking took pressure off our digestive system which allowed us to stack it up vertically.

Re: No One Knows Why Humans Can Walk

#47

Post by xtagon »

This is fascinating. Software can now simulate natural motion, including realistic bipedal walking animations that react to simulated forces while continuing to stay upright. I remember seeing this in Endorphin years ago and I believe these techniques are now used in games. What's interesting to me is that, we still don't exactly know how that works either! Genetic algorithms, deep neural networks, etc. are black boxes in the end.

Re: No One Knows Why Humans Can Walk

#48

Post by insulanus »

hyperpallium wrote: post #29

What was the evolutionary pressure that made us intelligent - could it be ranged attack ? First, what I'm calling the Geo-Fermi Paradox - why are we the only intelligent animal on Earth? Sure, it has advantages - but other animals would gain those advantages too. So why didn't they become intelligent (or, at least, more intelligent) too? Sure, there was climate-change in Africa that rewarded adaptivity - but why didn…

> why are we the only intelligent animal on Earth?

The process is not stuck in time. If we disappeared, another ape (or some other animal) might get where we are eventually, through some other path.

Re: No One Knows Why Humans Can Walk

#49

Post by insulanus »

rriepe wrote: post #46
hyperpallium wrote: post #29

What was the evolutionary pressure that made us intelligent - could it be ranged attack ? First, what I'm calling the Geo-Fermi Paradox - why are we the only intelligent animal on Earth? Sure, it has advantages - but other animals would gain those advantages too. So why didn't they become intelligent (or, at least, more intelligent) too? Sure, there was climate-change in Africa that rewarded adaptivity - but why didn…

This article glosses over it but I think the answer is cooking. Cooking took pressure off our digestive system which allowed us to stack it up vertically.

I think that's a trong contender for biggest contributer.

Natural food was was less calorie dense back then. I wonder if we reached a point where we could consume the most calories per pound of our own body weight, and never looked back.

Re: No One Knows Why Humans Can Walk

#50

Post by telesilla »

dogma1138 wrote: post #38
coenhyde wrote: post #5

I like the water ape theory. ie we had a period of time in our history where we spent a lot of time in low lying water that encouraged us to stand upright. There's a few things which point in this direction. iirc we're the only primate which can control its breath; good for swimming under water. Our fingers wrinkle when we spend time in water; good for picking things up in water. And we lost our hair; hair may have g…

We have fairly poor fat insulation and we are hairless so it’s highly unlikely we have evolved in water. Fur combined with skin oils is a great insulator as it is a hydrophobic surface in which air bubbles get trapped proving very good insulation. Our skin is very porous and thin and gets soggy very quickly in water which makes it less grippy and weakens it. We also have terrible physique for swimming (hence why we n…

Take into account that babies swim underwater without any training, and children can see under water in the ocean (I used to be able to). I'd say modern life has made us less water - friendly.

I also like the idea that consuming fish and shellfish contributed to our brain transformation, given omega 3 is highly beneficial for healthy brains.

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