Why did humans evolve into high order thinkers while other creatures did not?

Question

Humans have only evolved over a few thousand yrs, yet we were able to evolve into high order thinkers. There have been animals that have been around for 100's of millions of years. Crocs have been around since the dino's yet they are still dumb. Squids and oct's are thought of as very smart yet they have been around for millions of yrs and have NOT developed into high order thinkers.

The whole walking upright argument has flaws too. Many dino's walked on two legs and they didn't use tools. Dino's were around for millions of yrs before they fell off. Panda's have simple thumbs too.

Answer 1

Human intelligence has evolved dramatically over the last 1 million years. We generally regard our own intelligence as 'higher order' than other animals. This is really a matter of perspective, however.

Intelligence takes many forms. There is physical intelligence which comes from the ability to coordinate complex movements, there's practical intelligence which comes from collective experience, there's traditional logical intelligence which handles games and strategy, there's intuitive intelligence which allows for insights from left field, and there's linguistic intelligence which allows for the manipulation of language.

Each of these forms of intelligence are present in most animals to some degree, and many animals have evolved significantly more efficient forms of intelligence than we as humans possess.

Your dog for example is very highly socially adapted and is able to deal with you intuitively on a peer level even though he/she can't actually speak English. That's really, really smart.

Basically, intelligence is a biological adaptation to adverse circumstances in the environment. In our case, a series of fortunate events combined with a series of unfortunate ones to result in the human variety of intelligence.

Sharks and crocodiles are so well adapted and efficient at killing, they don't need to be too smart. Big brains are very expensive from a biological point of view. They cause our heads to be so big, that it practically kills the mother to give birth.

Also, big brains are harder to train and take much longer to become useful and independant. In our case, about eight years, which is loads longer than any other animal in nature.

I would suggest you read a bit about evolutionary theory, and the principles of adaption to understand more about why some animals seem 'dumb' and others seem 'smart.' In fact, all animals in the modern day are much smarter on average than most of the animals were just a few tens of millions of years ago.

Intelligence is an adaptation to global extinction events that have happened periodically ever since the 'beginning.'

Answer 2

This is an awesome question I have often pondered myself. Unfortunately, there are many plausible answers, yet no really good way to know for sure. There are so many nuances and subtleties involved in evolution that the major reason for our extraordinary intelligence could be something that nobody has even seriously considered yet. There is a very good book written about this question called A Brain for all season. I forget who the author is but I would definitely recommend it as a good read.

Answer 3

Humans have evolved for millions of years but perhaps were only human for a 100,000 years depending on where you want to draw the line. I think it is more logical to say that it took humans millions of years to evolve. The amount of evolving in 100,000 year isn't very great so most of the evolving was done by our ancestors, before they were human, of course. The brain takes up as much as 30 per cent of our energy. This is a great price to pay for our brains. It is important that in every step of evolution the price for having a big brain is paid for by some evolutionary advantage presumably from being able to cope better in the society or being able to outcompete others by developing technology or learning various strategies, such as hunting and fishing, better than others. A croc will probably not gain sufficient advantage in gaining brain size. It sits and ambushes prey. It is optimal where it is at. If it gained brain size, its head would be modified. It would need to eat more and would not be able to survive the periods where food was short as well as its dumber croc relatives. Humans on the other hand, lived in a complex environment where learning obviously provided many advantages to those who got smarter. I believe language is probably million(s) of years old, not 50,000 as some paleoanthropologists theorize. When language developed, this provided another incentive to develop a larger brain, so that our ancestors could teach their offspring to avoid danger without having them having to learn it by themselves, as well as numerous other things.

Answer 4

The answer lies in the very specific selective pressures that hominids have been subjected to. When our ancestors first moved on to the plains of Africa, they had to have their wits about them to hunt their prey and avoid predators. The "high order" thought evolved as a result of them being required to think on their feet.

Answer 5

I don;t knwo the whole story but I know many scientists think it is because the upright posture and opposable thumbs made it easier for our ancestors to use tools, which led to a natural advantage to those who could cleverly use them.

Answer 6

Hominid chicks really dug the hominid dudes who could make stone hand axes. This wasn't a big factor for crocodiles, squids, or other animals.

Answer 7

Did we really evolved? We'll never know..
maybe in the eyes of a squid, we are the morons who did not evolve.

We think we're smart?
Think again.

Answer 8

Are you sure that they haven't? Octopi are considered to be extremely smart due to their ability to rapidly solve complex problems. Starlings have recently been observed manufacturing tools, once thought to be an exclusivley human task.

Answer 9

The current theory provided is based on the theory of evolution. Since these are the only facts available. I imagine in the years to come. Something new will be discovered to explain it.

Answer 10

Looking at the state of the world, we are no better than animals. We are about as smart as plankton....oh wait, that is an insult to the plankton.