Part II: An Intelligent Face to Evolution: The Vertebrates - Exploring Knowledge of Emotive Behavior

Abstract

The parallels in the natural record continue to confirm the self-similarity implicit in the evolutionary order, from the form level in the plants, up through the routine level in the invertebrates, to the knowledge level in the vertebrates. We may expect the pattern to continue with humanity’s cultural evolution at the idea level in the hierarchy, but we will not find four levels completely delegated within this level. We shall see that in our brief journey out of the jungle that we have barely reached the stage of developing global technologies associated with our collective routines. Even at this level we are threatening our own survival. Man’s evolution is far from complete, but we are slowly becoming aware of our own evolution and the impact that our endeavors are having on the biosphere. A few hundred thousand years ago, Homo erectus had a brain close to the size of our own. He lived and hunted in groups, erected dwellings, made use of fire, and hunted big game. He must have possessed at least rudimentary language skills to accomplish these things, and he could make limited plans. These ground breaking achievements were the inheritance of Homo sapiens who brought sharper perceptions and talents to bear on the development of early human cultures. With the emergence of a single species, about thirty-five thousand years ago, human evolution graduated from our biological roots to become a distinctively cultural affair within a relatively fixed biological form.