I certainly agree with the general point and conclusions here, but I think that you are overstating it.
“It is a truism in evolutionary biology that conditional responses require more genetic complexity than unconditional responses. ”
is true except where general intelligence is at work. It probably takes more complexity to encode an organism that can multiply 7 by 8 and can multiply 432 by 8902 but cannot multiply 6 by 13 than to encode an organism that can do all three, and presumably it takes more complexity to encode a chimp with the full suite of Chimp abilities except that it cannot learn sign language than one that can learn to sign with proper education.
I certainly agree with the general point and conclusions here, but I think that you are overstating it.
“It is a truism in evolutionary biology that conditional responses require more genetic complexity than unconditional responses. ”
is true except where general intelligence is at work. It probably takes more complexity to encode an organism that can multiply 7 by 8 and can multiply 432 by 8902 but cannot multiply 6 by 13 than to encode an organism that can do all three, and presumably it takes more complexity to encode a chimp with the full suite of Chimp abilities except that it cannot learn sign language than one that can learn to sign with proper education.