Poetry – Once upon a time

Posted on by Opher

Once upon a time

A fairy tale with a happy ending.

Life’s slow evolution from such unlikely circumstance to the triumph of intelligence has to be the most remarkable story of all.

How life grew from slime to mankind without a pumpkin in sight, no fairy godmother and no wish. More remarkable than any genii in any bottle. More incredible than any story thought up by man. More wonderful than can be imagined. We are alive to look out at this incredible celestial infinity with minds enough to gasp and wish to understand.

That is my gift of a fairy tale. It is really called chance creation and evolution but I prefer to call it …. Once upon a time.

Once upon a time

Once upon a time

There was a tiny green jewel

That circled round a beautiful golden dawn.

It was on this viridian gem

That mankind was born.

Through multitudes

Of chance and death defying stance

Stretching all imagination

And every circumstance

We created this fascination.

Riding the realms of fire

Through the aeons of fury

Minds were forged that led to you and me,

Created this fantasy

And brought all life to be.

Step by slow step

Up the ladder we climbed

Blind, ignorant and by instinct primed

We sought to break the bonds

Through which we were confined.

With sight to see

We looked around with awe

At the celestial majesty outside our door

And sang a refrain upon the wind

From all the days of yore.

This is that song

Of wonder and delight

Sung to the rooftops of every resilient rafter

That we finally get it right and

All live happily ever after.

25.8.2015

What is the most intelligent species on the planet?

Posted on by Opher

The vanity of humans is that we are so intelligent that it puts us apart from all other life.

I reckon that is simply wrong.

We probably haven’t been the most intelligent species on the planet in the past and we probably aren’t now.

If there is a correlation between brain size then we are not the most intelligent species of Homo. Homo neanderthal had bigger brain capacity than us.

Homo neanderthal brain size was larger than the average modern human brain. It averaged 1500 cubic centimetres and an average 3.3 lbs while Homo sapiens has a  brain volume of just 1273.6 cm3 for men,

Does that mean they were more intelligent? We’ll never know. We do know that they were the first to produce artwork and created abstract work that seemed to have some shamanic meaning.

In terms of other animals on the planet our brains are a lot smaller than a number of other species. A human brain weighs on average 3.3 lbs. The largest brains are those of sperm whales, weighing about 8 kg (18 lb) – nearly 6 times larger than us!! And then killer whales, weighing about 12–15 lb (5.4–6.8 kg) – 4 to 5 times as big!! An elephant‘s brain weighs just over 5 kg (11 lb) and a bottlenose dolphin‘s 1.5 to 1.7 kg (3.3 to 3.7 lb). We are by no means the animals with the biggest brains.

Perhaps they are all more intelligent than us? We judge them by the fact that they do not produce any technology, read, write or speak. But maybe all that is just our anthropomorphic thinking. Who know what intricate thoughts they have?

Many other creature from Apes to crows display intelligence.

Perhaps we should not think of ourselves as being so special?

The Evolution of Human Intelligence

Posted on by Opher

Human intelligence is so hard to define. There is such a range of different types of intelligence aren’t there? The standard IQ test merely identifies certain attributes of intelligence which it consequently gives greater importance to. One thing is for sure – IQ tests are extremely limited and in no way reveal the extent of human intelligence.

 

As a teacher I have encountered students who were incredibly bright and academically capable but were also incredibly stupid. Some were so limited in other areas they were virtually unemployable. On the other hand I have encountered students who were very low down on the IQ scale and had limited academic prowess but were as sharp as needles and incredibly sharp witted and streetwise.

 

So IQ is not easy to pin down. There are different types.

 

Interestingly, as a biologist, I find it interesting to look at from a genetic and evolutionary perspective.

 

We humans are basically a third group of chimps. We are genetically very closely related to chimps – sharing 99% of our genes. The difference between us is largely the size and complexity of our brains. We have larger brains, are more intelligent and hence have developed greater language skills and tool making skills. We are better at solving problems and hence developing technology.

 

Intelligence is largely inherited. It is a polygene system. A number of genes all work together to create intelligence. There are different versions of these genes all chipping in their quota. If we inherit a set of genes with high values we will have a tendency towards high intelligence.

 

But that is where environment comes in. We can maximise the input of those genes through a number of factors:

 

Good diet to enable the brain to grow to its maximum;

Good exercise to enable good vascularisation and oxygen supply;

Good stimulus to help develop neuronal connections.

 

So good parenting and education can help a child reach his/her potential.

 

The two essential biological attributes that enabled us to develop intelligence, and tool making, probably both came from our arboreal ancestry. We have binocular vision which enables us to judge distance and do fine tool work. We have an opposable thumb which enables us to grip tools and use them with precision. So what evolved to enable us to swing through a tree canopy without falling now enables us to build nuclear weapons and the Hubble telescope.

 

Ain’t intelligence wonderful?

Wonder and Awe – Man and Intelligence.

Posted on by Opher

brain

The saddest aspect of being a human being is that there is only one species of us. It has led us to believe we are something special, something that is above all other life. Many people struggle to think of us as animals.

We are animals. We are intelligent animals. We have fabulous brains that give us consciousness. We think that sets us apart. It doesn’t.

We are not the most intelligent animal that has ever lived on this planet, let alone what intelligences may exist on other worlds. We are not even the most intelligent organism on this planet now. We are not even the most intelligent species of human who has ever lived on this planet.

Brains operate like super-computers. It is the size that is important. Our brains contain 85 billion brain cells – neurons – which is about the same number of stars as in a small galaxy. However each of those cells is connected via dendrites to between 10,000 and a 100,000 other brain cells. That is a staggering number of connections.

The human brain is between 1300 grams (the racists) and 1400 grams (the rest of us).

By comparison the brain of a chimpanzee (our closest relative with whom we share 99% of our genes) is only 400 grams.

There was a rapid evolutionary change occurred around 1.8 million years ago (very recent in evolutionary terms). Our brains grew from 400 grams to 1400 grams.

I said earlier that we are not the most intelligent animal on the planet. That distinction falls to the cetaceans. Not all of us consider them super-intelligent because they do not build cities and weapons. That is how we judge intelligence.

Whales and dolphins do not have limbs to create tools. They live in the sea and do not need shelter. They have plentiful food and do not need to work.

They play, sing, spend time together and enjoy themselves. They do not pollute, overpopulate or destroy one another. They are not cruel, barbaric and vicious. They do not create religions.

That sounds like intelligence to me.

The size of a sperm whales brain  is a staggering 7800 grams. That is over five times that of a human.

The brain of a bottle-nose dolphin is between 1500-1700 grams – bigger than a human.

Of course you may like to suggest that intelligence is not all about brain size. The evidence from bird intelligence (with small brains) is that there are other factors though size is crucially important.

If you take into account body mass to brain ratio then we still do not come out too good. Even the tree shrew outdoes us.

The obvious intelligence of the cetaceans is extant in numerous ways and makes it even more disgusting when you consider the incredibly callous way we have treated them. We have deployed our technology to kill races of gentle, intelligent creatures. We have blown them up with explosive harpoons, stabbed and hacked them to death. In the Faroes they are still gaffing and sawing through their necks. The barbarity is appalling.

These creatures are probably more intelligent and sensitive than humans. Stop the slaughter!

It seems incredible to me that we spent billions trying to find even the most crudest form of life elsewhere in the galaxy while ignoring the obvious intelligent life under our own noses. Perhaps we should be trying harder to communicate?

Back to the subject.

I said earlier that we are not the most intelligent human that has lived on this planet. That accolade goes to the Neanderthals. We share a common ancestor and we even have some of their genes. There was some successful interbreeding. The Neanderthals, far from being the shambling cavemen of our cartoons, were more intelligent than us. Their brain size was 1500 grams to 1800 grams.

As more intelligent humans they were probably gentler. We – the moronic cousins – were more cynical and vicious. We lived side by side up until as recently as a mere 150,000 years ago. Then we destroyed them.

How I wish we hadn’t. Wouldn’t it be great if there were two intelligent species of human beings living on this planet now? It would blow all that religious superiority out of the water – particularly when we were clearly the lesser of the two in intelligence. The biblical stories would simply not hold water.

But that was not to be. We, the inferior intelligence, prevailed.

It goes to show that there is more to being human than intelligence.