Re: Intellectual Abundance
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Yes, we developed our overly large brains for specific reasons and specialized survival purposes. But is the rest just frivolous fluff? Or do we continue to get smarter and integrate new knowledge and intellectual skills in our evolutionary development?
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If somewhere in our evolutionary history we started 'noticing' ( at the gene level, not intellectually) that smarter people left more offspring, then sexual selection will do the peacocks tail trick and start selecting for evidence of intelligence rather than the direct benefits of that intelligence.
That leads to an advantage to people that exhibit intelligence in a easily noticed way. Some (but only some) of the attraction of younger women to successful-seeming older men may be attributed to this factor.
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we developed our overly large brains for specific reasons and specialized survival purposes.
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What other purposes does evolution have in store for all this intelligence?
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I hope that's all just rhetorical. Future purpose is one thing that evolution does not factor in. How could it. Even current 'purpose' is a unhelpful way of looking at current features. Features aren't evolved 'for'.
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