Evolution

[eumeme]

I'm fascinated by the evolutionary theory because it seems to explain lots of things in a very simple way and I admit to have a bias toward simplicity (but I know it's a bias! ;) ).

I'm trying to understand the evolutionary reasons for the laugh (don't laugh :lol:) .

I know that we and some other primate species are ticklish.
I know that laughter reduces our stress levels by reducing the level of stress hormones.
I've heard of a theory that says that we laugh at humor because we are afraid of being the character in the joke.
I think that laugh has a social importance.
I think that we laugh when our brain/mind is suddenly off-balance.
I think that our body still has hairs to signal us (tickling) when an insect has landed on us.

My current hypothesis is the following:

being the human being not independent for 2-4 years after birth (and 6-24 month the other primate species), the supposed ticklish 'gene' would give an evolutionary advantage because parents could be alerted when lethal insect (or other animal) tickled the baby.

So the laugh would be born out of an alarm system that tells us to identify quickly the cause of it in order to gain control of it.
And it is needed in the species that have to learn how to survive in the first phase of their life.

Being the baby ticklish induce parents to play with the newborn and this could be the origin of the social importance of laugh.

I know that is a thin theory and doesn't explain everything but it's a starting point I guess... :D

Please feel free to comment and improve...


Bruno :rolleyes:

[sahyo]

seeking 'reason' as though is? ;)

[DavidS]

Originally posted by eumeme@Nov 13 2003, 05:17 AM
I'm trying to understand the evolutionary reasons for the laugh (don't laugh :lol:) .

[Etc.]

Please feel free to comment and improve...
Nice to meet you, Bruno (d/b/a eumeme ;) )

My speculation on the matter is that both laughter and tears reflect a 'higher' level 'intelligence' and 'awareness' (or 'sensitivity'). In the case of 'laughter', ya gotta be 'smart' or 'clever' to 'appreciate' and 'enjoy' things like 'surprising' 'contradictions'. 'Idiots' don't 'get' a 'joke' quite to easily. Here's an excerpt from some writing I did in the past which 'addresses' this in terms of 'evolution':

Progressively, the creative essence of Being has conspired to form an array of what, because of our material orientation, we've called 'sub-atomic particles'; these have interacted and engaged in such ways as to produce 'electrons', 'protons' and 'neutrons' which, in turn, have combined to create the various 'atoms' and 'molecules' we have become familiar with; and these, through more concerted effort, have coalesced into cellular and multi-cellular units, in stages, generating ever more complex aggregations of body, mind and spirit—the whole hierarchy and procession we know as Life.

In ascending sequence, with prior developments integrated and built upon, 'bodies' have become more coordinated, 'spirits' more potent, 'minds' more perceptive, resident Intelligence more designful and adept. Even what some call 'simple' single-celled organisms are architectural masters capable of cognizing, culling and compiling environmental ingredients so as to reproduce themselves and further their particular line of development. Each succeeding level of integration further demonstrates the aim of the impetus inherent within all being—that is, to seek and establish cooperative affiliation with suitable others in order to enhance creativity and increase the degree of intelligent actualization.

Life's evolutionary accomplishments in such pursuit are extremely varied in range and infinitely diverse; and, because of the involuted nature of their interconnectedness and interdependence, the ways in which its many forms and levels are related cannot be simply stated. Generally speaking, however, one might say that 'lesser' combinations of body, mind and spirit tend to be incorporated by, and serve to sustain, those more comprehensively developed. With their more energized spirits, more mobile bodies and more dimensional minds, for example, animals prevail over vegetation for the most part; and the more capable among them prevail over the rest.

Members of our species stand at the peak of a fantastic living pyramid, borne by the earth and sustained by energy continually streaming from the sun. Cresting a progression that has taken place over aeons and ages, we have emerged ascendant, capable of much more than great physical dexterity and coordination. Our laughter and our tears demonstrate, in dimensions of Mind and Spirit, how far beyond its other earthly manifestations Intelligence] [added note: 'Intelligence' is one, among several, 'terms' I sometimes use 'synonymously' with 'God' and 'Brahman'] has developed in the process of becoming human.
------
At least, that's what makes 'sense' to me. (Note: our 'evolution' didn't 'stop' with things like the development of the capacity-n-propensity to 'laugh' and 'cry', of course. There's more to the movie-story. We have also developed the capacity-n-propensity, requiring even 'greater' 'intelligence' and 'awareness', to be 'philosophical' and 'religious', for instance.)

David B)

[shifu]

Welcom Bruno....! :)

I would like to commend David S., when he said that his speculation on that matter is that both laughter and tears reflect a 'higher' level 'intelligence' and 'awareness' (or 'sensitivity'). Furthermore, laughter and tears or the alike in the lower form of life (brutes) may also be present. The jubilation, excitement, expression of aggression or howling of chimps, Gorillas and wolf, in my speculation, may be an expression of laughter and tears.

David S., I would like to ask your consent. I would like to print that excerpt that you posted above. Thanks! :)

shifu

[DavidS]

Hi shifu,

Your 'speculation' (re wolves, chimps, etc.) also makes complete sense to me. And, yes, you have my consent - as far as I am concerned, this is a 'public' conversation, so anything-I say here is in the 'public' domain and may be 'treated' as such.

[shifu]

thanks! :)

shifu

[eumeme]

The full evolution story...

http://bigbangtango.net/website/Xerox/Xerox.htm

Bruno :rolleyes:

[rich]

eumeme,

I am not sure if what I write here, has any bearing on the topic, but what I remember from English 101, is that which our nature sees as a discrepancy to the normal, is what makes a person laugh. So if ANY ONE does an unusual or unormal behavior, it may either be stupid or :lol: ;) funny. How little iKnow! :blink:

[sonrisa]

Richie :D you're back :D

[DavidS]

Originally posted by eumeme@Nov 19 2003, 04:21 AM
The full evolution story...
Perceptions of 'Fullness' and 'Part·ialness' both strike me as being dependent on the 'frame of reference' of the 'eye' or 'I' of the 'perceiving' 'observer', it seems to me.
:D

[janosabel]

The full evolution story...

http://bigbangtango.net/website/Xerox/Xerox.htm


Very interesting. but what about the socio/cultural future-evolution of humans?

This is my take:

New citizenship, New Society
This essay aims to make a credible link between "the big picture" and a deceptively simple proposal that could dissolve the "problem of unemployment" and free humankind for the cosmic task of intuiting and designing its own future. The global economic system is struggling to release human beings from economic bondage. Will society allow this, and turn towards the next evolutionary development? Political and humanitarian concerns mostly miss the most fundamental reform: the unconditional economic empowerment of the individual through a basic social wage.

Thinking about the future of civilization within an evolutionary time frame helps us to see the need for more than cosmetic improvements on current social arrangements. More of the same but a little bit better will not do in the future.

For humankind the future doesn't just happen; we create it by what we do or don't do now.

For most of its history the human race had been fighting for mere survival. This ancient fear of not having enough life support is still a dominant view in the collective consciousness. One of its manifestations is seen in the definition of economics as the science governing the allocation of scarce resources. This is also an example of a negative vision creating a corresponding reality where it seems "obvious" that only toil and sacrifice stands between an adequate life style and destitution.

Human social reality is the product of belief systems. The problems of the post-industrial society stem from inappropriate beliefs leading to faulty interpretation of how the world works at the start of the new century. The ideas helpful in understanding the world at one time, maintain their control over the minds of opinion formers and decision makers long after the reality they once reflected had ceased to exist.

This is why the notion of fundamental scarcity still dominates economic theorizing in spite of the fact that the rich nations regularly destroy, at great expense, masses of surplus resources consciously and intentionally to maintain commodity prices. They also do this "unconsciously" through following policies that lead to destruction by way of armed conflict, mostly of limited scale, but periodically on a world scale. To argue this in detail requires volumes that are available elsewhere and skeptics need to turn to them ( see, for example).

The truth is that post-industrial society is also a post-scarcity society. Before the industrial revolution great civilizations had to build their assets by exploiting the labour of politically ignorant masses. Industrialization was really a social evolutionary step away from this tradition. It released the ability to tap sources of energy unusable before and, through the development of science, the ability to invent increasingly efficient, powerful, and complex machinery to make use of the new forms of energy.

This process has continued at an exponential rate since the onset of industrialization. By the end of the twentieth century we could make virtually anything in any quantity we desire employing, mechanization, automation, cybernation, miniaturization, nano sciences. Why is it not obvious that there should be no need for anyone in the world to go without basic provisions necessary for a healthful lifestyle?

An outmoded belief system makes our success story into a threat to the survival of today’s civilization. The world looks as though it were worse off now than half a century ago. And this in spite of technologies and industries at our disposal which were unimaginable in the early 1950s. An endemic and relentlessly increasing unemployment situation is seen as a "problem" through a belief system that was invented to explain a world where human brawn was the main source of power needed to accomplish necessary work.

Looked at through a more appropriate set of assumptions—reflecting the realities of self-regulating, intelligent machine systems and the global information society—unemployment is not a disease but the sign of a successful development that releases people in droves from imposed labour to be free to chose their own work.

The challenge is, then, as we look into the first few decades of the new century, is to conceive of a vision that is worthy of the possibilities inherent in our powers to create a new kind of society based on an economic system which “serves everyone and protects the earth”.

The vision is of a human family where sibling rivalry gives way to cooperation; where it is clear that there is enough life support to go round and every sister and brother can have basic security from want without having to fight to secure it. The name of the game is no longer survival but the higher goal of developing dormant capacities and contributing the results to enhance the quality of life of the whole family.

Evolution produces increasingly complex and successful life forms because vital metabolic functions are designed to take place without the organism having to pay conscious attention to carry them out. Within the human species the automatic and taken-for-granted provision of individual basic needs will have the same liberating effect in unleashing the next evolutionary surge. A true world com-unity is a future development and it will depend on our determination to get there.

There are many milestones on the way from here to there and the next one to be passed is that of achieving a society that finally abandons "economic conscription" and grants to all citizens full freedom from the worries of securing the means of a modest but healthful living. It is no longer in doubt that everything we really need for effective physical existence can be produced by designing and building hi-tech machine systems. The purpose of human life cannot much longer be reduced to mere economic survival when the need to make people into a "factor of production" had disappeared long ago.

A huge raft of objections, entirely the result of wearing spectacles of outdated beliefs, is made to this proposition. One statement contains a bunch of these: "There's no such thing as a free lunch; why should individuals be given their quota of basic needs without expecting them to work for it in return?" Again, this vitally important debate goes on elsewhere and critics of this section are asked not to dismiss "the music" of this essay without appreciating the scope and depth of the lively debate around the many proposals for a guaranteed basic income (see, for example).

A quick answer to the objection above is that, (a) everything necessary for life—air, sunshine, rain, the ecosystem, our self-regulating body-machine, love, hope, friendship—is free; and, (b) the real work of humans is, as stated before, to develop dormant capacities so that we can participate as conscious partners in Life's unfolding future. The cells in our bodies are allowed to do "their own thing", and they do it in harmony with each other. Evolutionary society will grant the same basic freedom to us, its individual members.

So, “does the world owe us a living”?
Probably not. Nature gives us in abundance everything we need to provide for our needs and for the needs of our dependants. However, society does owe us a living. It has allowed the near complete privatization of the free gifts of nature (i.e. natural commons) on which all economic self-sufficiency has to depend. This reduced the individual, in the modern world, to an economic asset to be employed (exploited?) or discarded by other individuals.
At the same time, economic illiteracy (near one hundred percent) ensures that the outdated neoliberal economic theories that justify such a state of affairs remain largely unchallenged.

Effective world citizenship will remain an idle dream until nation states are brought by their citizens to recognise that true unconditional economic empowerment is a corollary of full national citizenship. How such an empowerment will be financed is largely a political question that is quite easily answered. The real obstacle is lack of political will condoned by a citizenry hypnotized into believing that we have no right to a living income unless we are economically viable by virtue of possessing marketable skills.

[janosabel]

Hello Bruno, my cyberfriend.

Why did this thread die?
I suppose the monkeys did not know they had to become human. We are like those monkeys were about 5 million years ago.

Do we know that we are only half human and need to become fully human in creating the possible good society (with no wars, no poverty, no oppression, no exploitation, no avoidable suffering)?

[nzira]

just been watching a flick on TV in africa about the :hahaha: man-ape link

Was a very interesting show ....

http://floresdiscovery.com

[nzira]

[QUOTE=nzira;82024]just been watching a flick on TV in africa about the :hahaha: man-ape link

This discovery/ theory has been found in the Sumatra rain-forests , 90cm up-right hairy beings ...............

In Zimbabwe, SO so much folk-lore.. there are miniture ( 60-90cm) beings called Tokoloshi's ...in the news-papers every year, usually in 'manyikaland' (west zim)... throwing corn at the local villagers... and generally being very naughty & disruptive.
The Local people have 'totems' or matupo's ... from lightning to a Cows Foot.
the uncanny resembelence to the individuals are Guessable ...
Foreign ' peoples are casually refeered to as 'Murewa' - monkey ...meaning 'Not exactly us, but clever and cheeky '... I thought it was my personal nikname.

I have been in rural areas and they have big comms with nature, and such General knowedge about the exact same things ... Kusvikirwa (ghost/arrival /vibes)
Mudzimu ... ansestorial spirit. I've seen possesion during a marriage ceremony.

SHONAs are on the edge of evolution, most think they are lazy. :goodlaugh:

[nzira]

I know that we and some other primate species are ticklish.
I know that laughter reduces our stress levels by reducing the level of stress hormones.
:thumbsup:

:rofl: so I'm right ... the least likley, most educated...(civilised) will evolve at slower pace than the un-educated rural folk , ultimatley ....

I only say this cause where Im from people have the biggest smiles, whitest teeth ... toothpaste ... yeah for the 10% who can afford it... I don't see 90% of africa with tooth decay .... and YES they ARE still smiling ... even in the mines of the congo .

:wallbash: (me, half the time ... )
–ºjlz

[the_aphid]

Perhaps this (http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Large_scale_gene_transfer_between_single-celled_and_multicellular_organisms_reported) will revive the thread:


Large scale gene transfer between single-celled and multicellular organisms reported

From Wikinews, the free news source you can write!

September 4, 2007
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3b/Wolbachia.png/200px-Wolbachia.png (http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Image:Wolbachia.png) http://en.wikinews.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png (http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Image:Wolbachia.png)
Transmission electron micrograph of Wolbachia within an insect cell.
Image: Scott O'Neill (http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.0020076&ct=1)

Wolbachia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolbachia) has on some occasions inserted almost its entire genome (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/genome) into species that it infects reported scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Craig_Venter_Institute) and the University of Rochester (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Rochester). This is the first example of large-scale horizontal gene transfer between single-celled and multicellular organisms. Although horizontal gene transmission is common among single-celled organisms, it is rare among multicellular organisms, and large scale transfer like that of an entire genome had previously not been suspected.

The scientists found that in addition to Wolbachia engaging in almost complete genome transfer into Drosophila ananassae (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drosophila_ananassae), it also had made significant transfer in 3 other insects species and 4 species of nematodes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/nematode). The researchers found candidate species by scanning genetic databases for sequences found in Wolbachia. The scientists also found that these added sections were conserved by reproduction; that is the added sections stayed in the genomes after multiple generations. Moreover, there is evidence that suggests that the segments of Wolbachia's genome increased the reproductive fitness of the insect species.

The transfers likely occurred during attempts at DNA repair in which the repair mechanisms incorporated Wolbachia DNA (available since the cells were infected with Wolbachia) into the genomes. These results could have major implications for understanding of evolution. The research also has implications for various forms of sequencing research, since when sequencing species, bacteria sequences are frequently ignored as they are generally assumed to be contaminants rather than good data.
Wolbachia, a genus of bacteria that normally infects anthropods, especially insects, is already known for its odd behavior that can affect species in strange ways. For example, Wolbachia has been shown to be correlated with fast evolution among species it infects and is suspected for being responsible for a variety of speciation events as a side affect of Wolbachia creating reproductive barriers. Wolbachia by some estimates infects more than half of all anthropods and is already thought to play a major role in the evolution and speciation of many invertebrates.

Since Wolbachia can generally only reproduce through females, it has adopted a number of strategies that treat males and females of species differently that can result in reproductive barriers. These strategies include killing of males, forced parthenogenesis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/parthenogenesis), and preventing infected males from reproducing with uninfected females.