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This book delves into one of the greatest riddles perplexing modern
science: Why are humans so smart? In a format understandable even
by the non-expert, the author investigates the origins of human
intelligence, starting with classical Darwinian concepts. Thus, the
strengths and beauty of natural selection are presented with many
examples taken from natural history. Common criticisms of Darwin,
from scientists and non-scientists alike, are confronted and shown
to be either inconclusive or outright false. The author then
launches into a discussion of human intelligence, the most
important feature of human evolution, and how it cannot be fully
explained by mutational selection. Modern humans are smarter than
what is demanded by our evolutionary experience as
hunter-gatherers. The difficulty lies in the inability of natural
selection to answer the following question: how can a complex set
of genes, controlling expensive traits with little immediate
benefit, come into permanent existence within a short time period
in every member of a small population (which was dispersed and
geographically isolated over a huge planet) which had a low
reproductive output and a low mutation rate? The book concludes
with a speculative epigenetic theory of intelligence that does not
require DNA mutations as a source of evolution. Although the book
is comprehensible by anyone with a college education, this last
section in particular should intrigue both layman and expert alike.
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Paperback
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R398
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