Friday, May 20, 2011
Robots show the evolution of altruism | ECN: Electronic Component News
Robots show the evolution of altruism | ECN: Electronic Component News: "Robots show the evolution of altruism"
Thursday, May 19, 2011
University of Utah study shows that men hit harder on two legs | Deseret News
University of Utah study shows that men hit harder on two legs | Deseret News
Well, if this were true, how ingrained is violence in the human species in general? And not just in the most violent, or the best violent males as they were those who carried their seeds on into the next generation. This process, which rewarded violence, would therefore change the whole population over time. In a way it means that men were programmed over time to be better at being violent, which got them on two legs, and women were conditioned to choose those males who were the most efficient fighters. In other words, women rewarded the winners.
I don't know how well that bodes for writers, where do we fit in this survival of the best violent. At least there is the slight consolation that those apes that stood to fight were using their brains to win more than just brute force.
Chris Moore
7 Animals That Are Evolving Right Before Our Eyes | Cracked.com
7 Animals That Are Evolving Right Before Our Eyes | Cracked.com
While these creatures have not truly "evolved"or actually speciated as they can probably still interbreed this cracked article is a humorous look at the changes man has forced on animals.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Quest for Fire
QUEST FOR FIRE:<BR>In the search for what made us human, a new take on the importance of fire<br><I>Sky Valley Chronicle Exclusive</> | FEATURE NEWS | Sky Valley Chronicle Washington State News
This is a fantastic article in favor of the idea that humans didn't just learn to harness fire. But they were actually shaped by it, having lived in the Rift Valley beside a 200,000 year running lava flow, which gave them easy access to fire and cooked food, which in turn allowed them a high protein, more easily digestible diet that led to the big brains we have now. And while I prefer the idea that man harnessed fire cause by lightning strikes out on the grassy Savannah as advocated in my novel Totem, this is an endlessly fascinating hypothesis that's worth looking into.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Joseph Campbell and the Unity of Mythology
There is a wonderful quote at the beginning of each of Joseph Campbell's books in the Masks of God series that nicely sums up his work and is applicable here to the creation of evolution ficiton. Campbell wrote that the result of his twelve years working on the books confirmed one of his long held beliefs:
"of the unity of the race of man, not only in its biology but also in its spiritual history, which has everywhere unfolded in the manner of a single symphony, with its themes announced, developed, amplified and turned about, distorted, reasserted, and, today, in a grand fortissimo of all sections sounding together, irresistibly advancing to some kind of climax, out of which the next great movement will emerge."
This is a large piece of text to take in all at once, I know, but the point is that in the beginning, man was united. Meaning, for Campbell, and for those who believe in mitochondrial Eve, even those who believe in Genesis, back in the mists of time there was only one group of humans closely grouped together and sharing a mythology. From that point, and after years and years of exploration and adventures man inhabited the earth, but he always took with him biological marks of his common ancestry and, somewhere tucked inside, the memories and myths of his earlier people.
But what does this mean for the writer. And here it should be plain enough, but Campbell in the same passage gives the answer when he writes: "I can see no reason why anyone should suppose that in the future the same motifs already heard will not be sounding still..." His book, as he says, furnishes those motifs and suggests "ways in which they might be put to use by reasonable men for reasonable ends--or by poets to poetic ends--or by madmen to nonsense and disaster." This passage opens up the wonder and possibility of the past for the next stage of human life and mythology. It's only for the poets of the moment and in the future to take them and help to create the reality we live in.
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