On Mon, Jun 18, 2018 at 10:50:05PM -0700, Brent Meeker wrote: > > > On 6/18/2018 4:44 AM, Steven Ridgway wrote: > > On Mon, Jun 18, 2018 at 01:25 Dr Russell Standish wrote: > > > "But presumably the argument is about certain cognitive skills which > > helped our species be extraordinarily successful, and also gave us the > > capability to understand algebraic topology." > > > > I've always found it a bit mysterious that humans are so good at abstract > > mathematics. I can see that the evolutionary pressures to improve tool > > making and hunting skills could have given us basic mathematical > > capabilities - but we are far better at it than seems reasonable. i.e. it > > seems a stretch to imagine our ability to understand differential equations > > and prove Fermat's last theorem just fell into place as an accidental by > > product of something else. > > > > It seems to me that a lot of complex engineering in our brains must exist > > to support the level of abstract reasoning we are capable of - and I don't > > see much evolutionary advantage to explain how this evolved. > > It's not that abstract mathematics provides an evolutionary advantage (just > look at the reproduction rate of mathematicians). But making persuasive > arguments very much does, and logical inference is important in persuasive > argument.
There was a slight misinterpretation of my original statement, not deliberate I'm sure. I was alluding to a group selection effect - that a society or species that includes practising mathematicians will outcompete one that doesn't. It's not to say that the mathematicians themselves are evolutionarily fit individuals - as has been pointed out, the evidence weighs against this. A similar argument is made for the continuing presence of homosexuality - there is a group selection effect (probably kin selection) that helps maintain homosexuality as a small percentage of the population, even if the individuals are much less likely to reproduce. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Principal, High Performance Coders Visiting Senior Research Fellow [email protected] Economics, Kingston University http://www.hpcoders.com.au ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
