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03-06-2005, 10:06 AM

Thanks 666 - that's very true - I'd almost argue that technology is an extension of our evolved capabilities - If we lost all our technological enhancements and tried to live naked in the bush, few of us would survive, we've become so dependent on our technological nests.

One thing I read a while back (in one of the Jack Cohen + Ian Stuart books) was about the notion of Intelligence and Extelligence. Intelligence is what we can all agree we've evolved in the 'traditional' sense of the word - we've got big heads, manipulative hands, and are hardwired to look for patterns in otherwise chaotic data.

Extelligence however, is the accumulated knowledge of the entire race that is made available to us from our parents, society, media and now, the internet. It lets us draw on the mistakes and lessons that others have learnt and allows us to 'stand on the shoulders of giants' as Newton (I think) said referring to the great scientific minds whos ideas he'd used as a standpoint on which to base his own.

I think this secondary type of 'telligence - that really gives us our power over the world. We are truely benefitting from the labours of countless generations who have tamed the landscape, developed technologies to keep us warm, sanitary, satiated and entertained - and packaged up all the knowledge about how they did it for us to draw on and add our bit to the future generations that come after us.

If we were to loose this record of the past - if a genetically human baby were born in the wild. It wouldn't stand a fighting chance of survival - it would need raising - perhaps by wolves or apes or the like - the way a cukoo chick is raised by a bird of a different species.

I do think that the extelligence providing aspect of the human mind is what has got us here today. The attributes one needs for extelligence are sociability, intelligence, an ability for language and expression, memory, empathy and the ability to think from another's point of view. It is no surprise to me that these are often the same elements that people view as being important qualities in a life partner i.e. that the qualities that people prefer in a companion are the same qualities that help build the world we live in today. It's almost too simple. The reason we like these qualities is that it is built into our genetic makeup to do so - and the reason we live in the world we live in is because those preferences have been reinforced over generations and generations, which has allowed us as a species to invent the lightbulb, and gravity, and the Empire State Building and travel the world, and land on the moon, and enjoy internet forums.

03-06-2005, 10:06 AM	#76 (permalink)
zen_tom Guest	Thanks 666 - that's very true - I'd almost argue that technology is an extension of our evolved capabilities - If we lost all our technological enhancements and tried to live naked in the bush, few of us would survive, we've become so dependent on our technological nests. One thing I read a while back (in one of the Jack Cohen + Ian Stuart books) was about the notion of Intelligence and Extelligence. Intelligence is what we can all agree we've evolved in the 'traditional' sense of the word - we've got big heads, manipulative hands, and are hardwired to look for patterns in otherwise chaotic data. Extelligence however, is the accumulated knowledge of the entire race that is made available to us from our parents, society, media and now, the internet. It lets us draw on the mistakes and lessons that others have learnt and allows us to 'stand on the shoulders of giants' as Newton (I think) said referring to the great scientific minds whos ideas he'd used as a standpoint on which to base his own. I think this secondary type of 'telligence - that really gives us our power over the world. We are truely benefitting from the labours of countless generations who have tamed the landscape, developed technologies to keep us warm, sanitary, satiated and entertained - and packaged up all the knowledge about how they did it for us to draw on and add our bit to the future generations that come after us. If we were to loose this record of the past - if a genetically human baby were born in the wild. It wouldn't stand a fighting chance of survival - it would need raising - perhaps by wolves or apes or the like - the way a cukoo chick is raised by a bird of a different species. I do think that the extelligence providing aspect of the human mind is what has got us here today. The attributes one needs for extelligence are sociability, intelligence, an ability for language and expression, memory, empathy and the ability to think from another's point of view. It is no surprise to me that these are often the same elements that people view as being important qualities in a life partner i.e. that the qualities that people prefer in a companion are the same qualities that help build the world we live in today. It's almost too simple. The reason we like these qualities is that it is built into our genetic makeup to do so - and the reason we live in the world we live in is because those preferences have been reinforced over generations and generations, which has allowed us as a species to invent the lightbulb, and gravity, and the Empire State Building and travel the world, and land on the moon, and enjoy internet forums.