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Multiple Differential Uncertainty

An essay in evolutionary theory, 1992   Roger Warren Evans

 
The distinctive abilities of mankind are analytical.   Man’s sensory and physical abilities are severely limited: other animal species are stronger, faster, with better eyesight, a better sense of smell, with the ability to fly, with better swimming abilities, manipulative skills, better able to survive physical deprivation, or to procreate more easily and more effectively. Man’s distinctive feature is his enlarged brain, and his ability to analyse his very condition. 

This analytical capacity is to be distinguished from the awareness of self, or individuality.   Indeed, it may be that other species share that sense to differing degrees: it is easy to imagine that the higher order mammals, elephants, whales and primates, share an element of self-awareness, a sense of separateness or individuality, and therefore of relationship with other individuals.  But certain it is that no other species possesses man’s combination of both self-awareness and analytical ability.

   It is that combination that provides the clue to the success of man as a species.  Man has been able to apply his enormous analytical abilities to outwit and dominate most other species, and secure the survival and proliferation of humankind.  That has been achieved by the superimposition of man’s own sense of order upon the living patterns of other plant and animal species, whether by way of domestication, genetic modification or eradication.

  The assertiveness born of self-awareness, combined with the analytical power of an enlarged brain, both enlisted in the pursuit of an ordered existence, have proved an enormous competitive advantage to all humans.  Very few creatures have been able to counter it, although insects and disease-generating organisms continue to have limited success, and man continues to devote considerable resources to their domination.  More...

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