Great post. But, squishy as we are, there are two physical activities in which we have dominated the animal kingdom for a long time: throwing stones and long distance running. A silver-back gorilla can tear you apart limb from limb, but have you seen them attempt to throw something? Pityfull! The most they can achieve is flinging. And while intelligence is what started us on the path to developing the strongest long-range attack, the key to endurance hunting is our water cooling system (i.e. sweating). A trained human can literally run at a horse until it drops from heat stroke.
We ran at things and threw rocks at them for a long time. And when we caught things, we broke their bones and skin with more rocks. After awhile, the muscles for our jaws atrophied. Which, combined with the caloric surplus from our successful hunts, allowed our skulls and brains to grow. And then—then it was big brains time!
“Born to run” is further read on the topic—it also describes the proper technique of running (forefoot striking instead of heel striking, think rope jumping and stepping quietly). Although, the author does not seem to know math very well and his style might be too obnoxious for some.
TL;DR—intelligence is cool, but sweating should receive some recognition as the other super-power we humans enjoy. Or, as Toph Beifong would put it: ” You are a genius. A sweaty, stinky genius.”
This is an excellent point. I’d like to deflate it a little bit though, since your supporting comments for the evolution of sweating mechanisms are part of a general principle.
For every mental strength we confidently point to, there will be an excellent physical strength we could also point to as a proximate cause, and vice versa. Discussions like this sound like evolutionary “missing link” arguments for the fossil record, where any 2 provided examples imply some intermediate step that’s roughly as deserving of attention.
Pointing out that brains are a profound development in evolutionary history has more to do with helpfulness for deriving new insights and consolidating the lessons of history than it does with measuring some global score of evolutionary value. Maybe sweating scores higher in evolutionary value than the unification of brains, but I predict that developing the AI equivalent of sweating will be significantly easier than developing the AI equivalent of brains. If you believe otherwise though, then calling attention to sweating is worth more words.
For every mental strength we confidently point to, there will be an excellent physical strength we could also point to as a proximate cause, and vice versa.
I agree with you. I just find the particulars oddly inspiring—even if we are not the fastest land hunters, we are genetically the most persistent. This is a lesson from biology that bears thinking about.
Also, we could point to our physical strengths, but people usually don’t. We collectively have this body image of ourselves as being “squishy”, big brains compensating for weak, frail bodies. I like disabusing that notion.
An interesting choice since horses are one of the few other animals on the planet that sweat and, therefore, are one of the hardest to run down.
Interestingly, the ability to sweat also coincides with the ability to run oneself to death. Other creatures use panting as their primary cooling mechanism, and, as a result, when they become too warm, they cease to be able to take in sufficient oxygen to maintain their exertion and have to stop. Non-sweaters will drop from exhaustion, but it’s rarely fatal.
Horses use their extreme running ability to get away from predators. Humans use it to be predators. When we finally teamed up we became nearly unstoppable. :D
Great post. But, squishy as we are, there are two physical activities in which we have dominated the animal kingdom for a long time: throwing stones and long distance running. A silver-back gorilla can tear you apart limb from limb, but have you seen them attempt to throw something? Pityfull! The most they can achieve is flinging. And while intelligence is what started us on the path to developing the strongest long-range attack, the key to endurance hunting is our water cooling system (i.e. sweating). A trained human can literally run at a horse until it drops from heat stroke.
We ran at things and threw rocks at them for a long time. And when we caught things, we broke their bones and skin with more rocks. After awhile, the muscles for our jaws atrophied. Which, combined with the caloric surplus from our successful hunts, allowed our skulls and brains to grow. And then—then it was big brains time!
“Born to run” is further read on the topic—it also describes the proper technique of running (forefoot striking instead of heel striking, think rope jumping and stepping quietly). Although, the author does not seem to know math very well and his style might be too obnoxious for some.
TL;DR—intelligence is cool, but sweating should receive some recognition as the other super-power we humans enjoy. Or, as Toph Beifong would put it: ” You are a genius. A sweaty, stinky genius.”
This is an excellent point. I’d like to deflate it a little bit though, since your supporting comments for the evolution of sweating mechanisms are part of a general principle.
For every mental strength we confidently point to, there will be an excellent physical strength we could also point to as a proximate cause, and vice versa. Discussions like this sound like evolutionary “missing link” arguments for the fossil record, where any 2 provided examples imply some intermediate step that’s roughly as deserving of attention.
Pointing out that brains are a profound development in evolutionary history has more to do with helpfulness for deriving new insights and consolidating the lessons of history than it does with measuring some global score of evolutionary value. Maybe sweating scores higher in evolutionary value than the unification of brains, but I predict that developing the AI equivalent of sweating will be significantly easier than developing the AI equivalent of brains. If you believe otherwise though, then calling attention to sweating is worth more words.
I agree with you. I just find the particulars oddly inspiring—even if we are not the fastest land hunters, we are genetically the most persistent. This is a lesson from biology that bears thinking about.
Also, we could point to our physical strengths, but people usually don’t. We collectively have this body image of ourselves as being “squishy”, big brains compensating for weak, frail bodies. I like disabusing that notion.
An interesting choice since horses are one of the few other animals on the planet that sweat and, therefore, are one of the hardest to run down.
Interestingly, the ability to sweat also coincides with the ability to run oneself to death. Other creatures use panting as their primary cooling mechanism, and, as a result, when they become too warm, they cease to be able to take in sufficient oxygen to maintain their exertion and have to stop. Non-sweaters will drop from exhaustion, but it’s rarely fatal.
Horses use their extreme running ability to get away from predators. Humans use it to be predators. When we finally teamed up we became nearly unstoppable. :D