occlude comments on Brain shrinkage in humans over past ~20 000 years - what did we lose? - Less Wrong

15 Post author: Dmytry 18 February 2012 10:17PM

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Comment author: occlude 21 February 2012 04:58:14PM * 3 points [-]

.Please look around you. Does it look like we have got dumber in the last 20,000 years? I'd say this is tons of data. It may be hard to estimate in Bayesian terms, but certainly not less than +100 db of evidence against the alternative.

What I see when I look around is largely the product of millenia of cumulative invention and discovery.

Comment author: gRR comment score below threshold [+] (4 children)

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 22 February 2012 06:35:54PM 1 point [-]

It's conceivable that most people need less mental resources because a lot of thinking has been outsourced to the infrastructure.

It's certainly takes less neurological resources to walk on smooth pavement than rough ground.

Could less interpersonal violence mean less need for some mental capacities?

Comment author: CronoDAS 22 February 2012 07:17:47PM 2 points [-]

Could less interpersonal violence mean less need for some mental capacities?

It's certainly lessened the need to, for example, be able to see a punch coming and avoid it...

I wonder how much driving cars affects the brain? There does seem to be evidence that the brain's structure changes depending on the demands that are placed on it, and driving a car is a rather unusual cognitive task compared to what people would have been doing in the Paleolithic...

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 22 February 2012 08:10:12PM 0 points [-]

Not just seeing a punch coming in the literal sense, but making strategic choices about odds and allies.

Comment author: gRR 22 February 2012 08:03:17PM 0 points [-]

The problem for me with this and other proposed hypotheses is that similar or better ones would equally well explain the reverse effect. So I am still confused after hearing them.

Thus my original question: is the data really well established? Is it confirmed replicated findings of lots of dug out skulls all over the world, or?

occlude comments on Brain shrinkage in humans over past ~20 000 years - what did we lose? - Less Wrong

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