Human evolution; our complex speech mechanism (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, May 12, 2019, 20:01 (2020 days ago) @ dhw
edited by David Turell, Sunday, May 12, 2019, 20:18

dhw: We know that brain and body make changes in response to new demands, and I keep repeating that I do NOT want cell communities to foresee the future. It is you who demand fortune-telling in the shape of your God’s plans and/or direct surgery. My proposal, once again, is that the cell communities RESPOND to needs, not that they anticipate them. What is McCrone’s proposal?

DAVID: McCrone does not discuss the genetic possibilities we discuss. He simply describes the anatomic changes that homo fossils tell us.

dhw: Then please stop using him as if he supported your hypothesis. The fossils tell us the changes that took place – not how, when or why.

But his description of the changes and when they occurred fits my theory. As for your 'fortune-testing'. comment, I'll remind you the dropped larynx required intense re-engineering of the epiglottis, in anticipation of the problems related to that change, I can easily image your cell committees around the planning table puzzling what to do. Your improbable theory stretching the known fact that individual cells make intelligent appearing responses to simple stimuli is just that, an enormous stretch, when it is obviously not known/proven that cells are innately intelligent.

DAVID: The dropped larynx allows for our ability to speak as we do. Chimps have a simple epiglottis and an oral pharyngeal anatomy that allows for breathing and swallowing at the same time. Human infants are born with the same arrangement, and as they develop, the larynx drops and the epiglottis develops fully. This article explains:
https://mosesappliances.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Evolution-of-the-Human-Oral-Airw...
I interpret it as pre-planning. You don't. That is a gulf which will never shrink.

dhw: Yes, we know the changes, and it is interesting to see that infants repeat the same evolutionary process, and yes, once again you interpret this as evidence that your God provided the first living cells with a larynx-dropping, epiglottis-forming programme (along with programmes for every other change in the history of evolution), or stepped in to operate on our ancestors. You prefer to gloss over the unlikelihood of such a process with the term “pre-planning”.

I gloss over nothing. You always forget I've got God in charge and I have made assumptions as to how He managed control. At least I don't imagine brilliant cells running the show, as a huge imaginary stretch..