9 August 2021 - evolving smarts

If I’m not a space alien, you ought to ask, then how did I get to be so smart? It comes down to the evolution of intelligence. A brain is expensive, and has to pay for itself in evolutionary terms. It’s easier for a social species, because you can learn from each other. But if you have the large population to build up a large cultural knowledgebase, then you are already successful, and more brain doesn’t pay. Genus Homo had small populations for nearly its entire existence--archaeology and the anthropic principle agree, fortunately for archaeology--then had a sudden breakthrough. The small population into sudden breakthrough pattern is a bottleneck requirement that makes it hard for a civilization-building species to evolve. Now look at me. I’m not social and I have a population of one, so I have to be a supergenius just to be here. That’s why I’m your king of the world, not building civilization but destroying.