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From: "Alan J. Robinson" <robin073@maroon.tc.umn.edu>
Subject: Re: Quantifying literary progress
Message-ID: <50522.robin073@maroon.tc.umn.edu>
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Date: Sun, 27 Aug 1995 16:19:37 GMT
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On 26 Aug 1995 11:14:24 -0500, 
Jorn Barger  <jorn@MCS.COM > wrote:

>The question now is "how did evolution produce the brain, and what
>exactly did it produce?" and it's the evolutionary theorists who
>have the best handle on part one, and the ***novelists*** who have
>the best handle on part two...
>
>
I'm not a specialist in evolution, but presumably the major driving 
force in the evolution of the brain has been the need to find food 
(other animals and plants) without at the same time being eaten for 
food by other animals (with a little bit of conspecific agression 
thrown in as well).  Evolution is usually described in terms 
of reproductive survival, with the emphasis on reproduction, but the 
emphasis would probably be better placed on survival.

Because this raw survival aspect has largely vanished from the 
lives of many humans, there has been speculation that evolution 
though natural selection may have stopped in humans.

That it would have been possible for evolution to produce biological 
organisms which come complete with their own parallel processing 
onboard computer system is well-nigh miraculous - most biological 
organisms (plants, protozoa, bacteria, viruses) seem to do perfectly 
OK without brains.

AJR

