THIN BONE VAULT, THE: THE ORIGIN OF HUMAN INTELLIGENCE

by Menger Fredric M

This book delves into one of the greatest riddles perplexing modern "Why are humans so smart?" In a format understandable even by the non-expert, the author investigates the origins of human intelligence, starting with classical Darwinian concepts. Thus, the strengths and beauty of natural selection are presented with many examples taken from natural history. Common criticisms of Darwin, from scientists and non-scientists alike, are confronted and shown to be either inconclusive or outright false.The author then launches into a discussion of human intelligence, the most important feature of human evolution, and how it cannot be fully explained by mutational selection. Modern humans are smarter than what is demanded by our evolutionary experience as hunter-gatherers. The difficulty lies in the inability of natural selection to answer the following how can a complex set of genes, controlling expensive traits with little immediate benefit, come into permanent existence within a short time period in every member of a small population (which was dispersed and geographically isolated over a huge planet) which had a low reproductive output and a low mutation rate?The book concludes with a speculative epigenetic theory of intelligence that does not require DNA mutations as a source of evolution. Although the book is comprehensible by anyone with a college education, this last section in particular should intrigue both layman and expert alike.

Genres: Science, Evolution

312 pages, Hardcover

First published February 11, 2009

Reviews

[Echo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a mixed bag for me, his take on evolution and human intelligence seemed a bit lacking but the epigenetic and biochemical material was stimulating and interesting. I have no background in biology or anthropology so my objections are probably deeply flawed but if the book was more comprehensive I might've known why.


The good:

- bold theorizing! But testable and falsifiable, so it has more merit than technically savvy sci-fi. (still, all it changes is the mechanism. It doesn't address the selection pressures, why intelligence, or many of the objections he raises to a darwinian account)
- many important and fascinating experiments are described
- even if you don't buy his theory you will learn a lot of interesting facts about genetics and epigenetics, the technical level is high and, especially in the last couple of parts, very satisfying.
- Fills a niche, not a lot of interesting material on the subject that's available to the general reader.

The bad:

- didn't make it clear to me why his evolutionary stories were more plausible and useful than all the ones he dismisses (even tho I find his exercises in making alternate accounts pedagogically useful)
- Apparently the discovery of fire and heat-preparation of food was not an event worth mentioning, even tho this is interpreted as causing the shortening of our intestines which lead to much better energy utilization (the intestines need a lot of energy to do their work), freeing up resources for a power-hungry organ like the brain
- although he did make a point of the importance of brain plasticity, he never really addresses the long developmental time of human children and the extent of dendritic pruning that takes place during this period. Having a longer window for critical and sensitive periods sounds like an important factor in how much culture can change an organism.
- his discussion of how traits like intelligence or musicality (or indeed a brain region specific to written language) was useless to our pre-historic forefathers wasn't entirely convincing (what good is a cubic-root to a caveman? I'm not sure, but pattern recognition and being able to think and manipulate abstractions in some capacity sounds like it could be useful? It does sound like it's a subject that has been covered by others, so I should perhaps not hold it against him for not dedicating more time to the subject).

[Pipim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite an interesting book especially for those who aren't familiar with the cases made for and against evolution. The author states many cases for and against natural selection and admits some are indeed valid and without answers. He goes on to answer some of the questions he could, speculate(baked by facts) about others and admits and short comings of the natural selection theory where the theory doesn't quite answer the questions put to it.