I thought if humans were vastly more intelligent than they needed to be they would already learn all the relevant knowledge quickly enough so they reach their peak in the 20s.
There is a difference between being more intelligent than you need for pure survival and being so intelligent that you can reach the objective ceiling of a craft at early age.
I mean for an expensive trait like intelligence I’d say the benefits need to at least almost be worth the costs, and then I feel like rather attributing the selection for intelligence to “because it was useful” rather than “because it was a runaway selection”.
The benefit is in increased inclusive genetic fitness. A singular metric that encorparates both success in competition with other species and with other members of your species due to sexual selection. If the species is already dominating the environment then the pressure from the first component compared to the second decreases.
That’s why I’m attributing the level of human intelligence in large part to runaway sexual selection. Without it, as soon as interspecies competition became the most important for reproductive success, natural selection would not push for even grater intelligence in humans, even though it could improve our ability to dominate the environment even more.
If the species is already dominating the environment then the pressure from the first component compared to the second decreases.
I agree with this. However I don’t think humans had nearly sufficient slack for most of history. I don’t think they dominated the environment up until 20000years [1]ago or so, and I think most improvements in intelligence come from earlier.
That’s why I’m attributing the level of human intelligence in large part to runaway sexual selection. Without it, as soon as interspecies competition became the most important for reproductive success, natural selection would not push for even grater intelligence in humans, even though it could improve our ability to dominate the environment even more.
I’m definitely not saying that group selection lead to intelligence in humans (only that group selection would’ve removed it over long timescales if it wasn’t useful). However I think that there were (through basically all of human history) significant individual fitness benefits from being smarter that did not come from outwitting each other, e.g. being better able to master hunting techniques and thereby gaining higher status in the tribe.
There is a difference between being more intelligent than you need for pure survival and being so intelligent that you can reach the objective ceiling of a craft at early age.
The benefit is in increased inclusive genetic fitness. A singular metric that encorparates both success in competition with other species and with other members of your species due to sexual selection. If the species is already dominating the environment then the pressure from the first component compared to the second decreases.
That’s why I’m attributing the level of human intelligence in large part to runaway sexual selection. Without it, as soon as interspecies competition became the most important for reproductive success, natural selection would not push for even grater intelligence in humans, even though it could improve our ability to dominate the environment even more.
I agree with this. However I don’t think humans had nearly sufficient slack for most of history. I don’t think they dominated the environment up until 20000years [1]ago or so, and I think most improvements in intelligence come from earlier.
I’m definitely not saying that group selection lead to intelligence in humans (only that group selection would’ve removed it over long timescales if it wasn’t useful). However I think that there were (through basically all of human history) significant individual fitness benefits from being smarter that did not come from outwitting each other, e.g. being better able to master hunting techniques and thereby gaining higher status in the tribe.
Or could also be 100k years, idk