Shadow

Ok, can you talk about evolution without reproduction and natural selection?

Guess you can. According to this Newsweek.com quote of UCLA neuroscientist Gary Small, 

 
"Perhaps not since early man first discovered how to use a tool has the human brain been affected so quickly and so dramatically," he writes. "As the brain evolves and shifts its focus towards new technological skills, it drifts away from fundamental social skills."

I’d bet my farm that globally there is a negative correlation between internet usage and reproduction rate.  That can’t be what’s driving this brain evolution. I am also sure that there is a possitive correlation between internet use and life span, again at the global level. But so what, if you don’t have more children?

So is the whatever brain change triggered by internet/technology uses inheretable? In some ways, yes. As it become part of the "natural" environment in which human brains develop, it becomes completely entangled with brain development.

Can we say, then, technology is paragenetic? 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 at 2:05 pm and is filed under Odds'n'Ends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Edit this entry.