Convoluted human evolution: a branch is missing (Introduction)

by dhw, Monday, July 31, 2017, 08:19 (2673 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: How many other branches are yet to be found. There appears to be a large bush of hominins, when nothing else advanced. Looks like a purposeful push toward H. sapiens.

dhw: Looks like a large bush to me. Most purposes run in a straight line, don’t they?

DAVID: But all of evolution is a giant bush. That's the purposeful approach.

dhw: In that case, the purpose is a giant bush – not one single species.

DAVID: But as I pointed out there was a bush explosion of various hominins as the major thrust of evolution in the past 8-10 million years. That is the purposeful event. You are trying to dilute it.

It is you who are trying to “dilute it” by saying that one single species (Homo sapiens) was the purpose of the giant bush. I am pointing out that a single purpose would normally follow a straight line and not branch out into a higgledy-piggledy bush.