recently i saw that apes are getting smarter, they have learned to use sticks to measure depth of water before walking into the pond. so does brain evolve??? and we have been saying kids now days are getting smarter.
2006-07-09 01:47:10 · 10 answers · asked by tionky 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Zoology
apes has learned to use tools. what next? weapons?
2006-07-10 17:17:46 · update #1
nowadays, yea, kids are smarter because of the all resources provided from technology. The brain does not evolve at all, but the learning process speeds up due to inpaticent part of people.
2006-07-09 01:52:09 · answer #1 · answered by LetMEtell&AskYOU 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's difficult to say. Maybe apes were smart enough to use a stick before and just now thought of it. Maybe they saw a human do it and are just imitating the human. Any person's brain adapts a little when it learns. Kids today might be smarter than before not because of evolution, but because they are being taught more complicated stuff. By complicated stuff, I don't mean in school. I mean cell phones and all that. Just like a muscle, if the brain isn't used it isn't as strong.
2006-07-09 08:57:17 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
What you mention (the apes using sticks to measure the depth of water) is evidence of learning, not of evolution. Apes have likely learned to do many things on the millions of years they have existed, but humans have only been observing them closely for a short time (beginning with Dianne Fossey and Jane Goodall in the 60s).
People saying that their kids, or kids today are smarter is not likely true. Kids today have more information on a small set of topics, which may make them appear smarter, but there is no evidence that average IQ is higher today than in the 1920s. (As an educator I know there are lots of things that kids today can't do that were routinely part of the average grade school or high school knowledge set 40 years ago.)
We are unlikely to see any evidence of the evolution of brains in our lifetimes. Evolution works on a geological time scale; 100,000 years is almost instantaneous in evolutionary terms, but is 20 times longer than humans have written records for.
2006-07-09 08:57:13 · answer #3 · answered by P. M 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As an individual, the answer would be a resounding no. However, with the passage of time, the evolution of the human brain as a collective unit ( aka mankind ) is irrefutably evolving. To deny this is to say that the universe is static and nothing changes which we know is wholly inaccurate. I'd hate to think my children's children were destined to be tethered to the very same X Box console and watching the Space Shuttle launch yet again with a circular orbit targeted for observational purposes 200 years from now.
2006-07-09 21:12:52 · answer #4 · answered by Chris B 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The brains of the species as a whole evolves. Certainly the brain of modern man is larger than the brain of his acestors 20.000 years ago.
But size alone doesn't really influence brain power/smartness that much. It's the amount of connections between neurons (connections formed by asimilating information, processing it etc.) that gives the brain it's power. From that point of view, the brain of modern man is vastly superior to the brain of primitive man. The vast amounts of information available to him, both as direct experience and as preprocessed events (news, movies, music, books etc.) give the human of today an advantage over the humans, even from several centuries ago.
2006-07-09 08:57:16 · answer #5 · answered by ? 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
its more that it adapts to the environment its in.From all anthropology of humanoids,the brain cavity has expanded in size.Meaning more to use and store information.Its all about survival of a species.Ants will cut leaves to get across water,to survive to hunt for another meal.Is this intelligence.Check out how spear points and arrow heads evolved over time as humans found out better ways of doing things.
2006-07-09 15:57:33 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
That is a subject of debate all over the zoological community.There are some who believe that the brain is not evolving . That we are simply learning to use more of it.
2006-07-09 08:52:28 · answer #7 · answered by Ricky J. 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The brain is constantly changing and the mind is constantly evolving and can be measured. "The evolution of the mind is measured by its acceptance of the unacceptable."
2006-07-09 08:54:06 · answer #8 · answered by nala enegue rellet 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Everything evolves .. some things faster than others ... but everything evolves.
2006-07-09 08:51:33 · answer #9 · answered by sam21462 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
apes have been doing these things, we just started noticing them they arent just now starting to learn them, they have been doing it the whole time
2006-07-09 08:55:56 · answer #10 · answered by . 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋