evolution of the human brain?

Question

Has the human brain developed during the last 2000 years. Would a child from that era be able to be educated as a modern day child , and develop to handle the complex things of today

Answer 1

2000 years is way too short a time for biological evolution to occur to any noticeable degree.

A baby from that time, raised today, would be the same as babies born today.

A very young child brought into now, would be able to be educated in today's world.

An older child, it's hard to say. It would depend on the child. For example, some people are good at picking up other languages when they're adults; others are not.

Answer 2

The last major change in brain setup occured at least 200,000 years ago, and it may have been much earlier than that. That's around the time that things like complicated tools and intricate art start really appearing. There is debate among anthropologists, though, whether this sudden flowering of human culture is result of some subtle change in our brains that doesn't appear in the fossil record or if it's just that it took that long before we built up the technology that appeared around then. Other than possibly that event, any random human from any era should have the same mental dexterity as the average modern human.

Answer 3

I would say the human brain has certainly adapted to culture in the last 2000 years... going from the agricultural age to the industrial age, and now at the very beginning of the electronic age. But given the fact that we only use a small percentage of the brain's potential, can we say the human brain has evolved?

There is a window of opportunity in a persons socialization that allows them to easily learn language and other cognitive functioning. If a child from 2000 years ago could be socialized in modern society during this window of opportunity, I believe they would do just fine.

Humans are very ethnocentric. We believe that our modern culture here in the beginning of the electronic age is the best that society has to offer.
When actually most social scientists say the quality of life and sense of purpose and happiness has most definitely gone down in modern society when compared to agricultural societies.

Answer 4

The human brain is constantly evolving. Each generation, it is denser and more open to the universe. A child from Early Mesopotamia might be able to understand and cope with the modern times, and do well in highschool.. but i think that some concepts would be out of reach, just like the internet is a phenomenon to most elderly people. But then again.. we will never really know untill we have mastered time travel!

Answer 5

Intelligence certainly doesn't equal enlightenment, nor happiness.

There's a give and take for everything. For example, we might consider ourselves more intelligent or more knowledgeable compared to a 2000-year-old person, but we have also lost many skills.

Would we know how to do old-fashioned research like the ancients, instead of relying on the internet?

Would we be able to write letters or write scrolls or recite long poems instead of using short hand on mobile phones and internet forums?

Would we know how to shoot an arrow? How to row or sail? How to talk philosophy? How to bind books? How to make our own beer? How to wrestle?

With our fast lifestyle, we miss out on a lot of other skills. I don't see us modern humans as more superior. We have systems and machines on our side. That's about it.

Answer 6

There probably isn't going to be much of a difference in 2000 years. Evolution takes too long. 10,000 years would be a better time period to look at. Within that time period, a noticeable change could occur in human brains.

Answer 7

maybe i dunno