Re: Not good at it yet.

David Canzi -- non-mailable wrote:
> A species practicing a recently acquired skill will not do it well.
>
> The development of rational thought required the development
> of languages complex enough to contain logical connectives and
> quantifiers, eg. "if", "and", "all". Our ability to use such
> languages and think rationally is new. We're not good at it yet.
>
> This explains why the intelligence that separates us from other
> animals doesn't separate us from them by much. This explains
> why most people readily believe nonsense. This explains a lot
> about alternative medicine, creationism, and holy wars.
>
> This phenomenon, widespread belief in harmful nonsense, probably
> happens to *any* species that begins to evolve intelligence
> *anywhere* in the universe. I wonder if any incipient rational
> species ever survives long enough to reach the point where most
> of its members think straight most of the time?


Good question. To me it's always seemed like it's not so much our
analytical ability that's the problem, although admittedly it is
extremely difficult to come up with the right answer all the time. To
me is seems that it's our emotions that are the real hindrance to
thinking. It's our needs and wants and desires that cloud our
thinking.

If so, then the question is...is it inevitable that a thinking being
must first go through an evolutionary stage where emotions are
essential to survival, and where these emotions are shaped by
generation after generation in a complex social environment? And then,
when will a species like us be stressed to the point that high levels
of thinking are critical to survival? Clearly our species is able to
overpopulate while still struggling to think clearly. But what traits
will actually be needed for survival later?


>
> --
> David Canzi "Each of these arguments by itself is invalid, but taken
> collectively they constitute an impressive body of evidence."
> (Skeptical Inquirer, Jul-Aug, 2005)

.

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