> Also sprach Jeff Bone:
> > > We are actually incredibly clueless about the concept of a sense of
> > > self.
> >
> > There's one thing we can say definitively about it, assuming you believe in "the real
> > world" that is: we have one because it's a survival trait.
>
> Oh, you mean like my appendix and my wisdom teeth?
>
> I think SJ Gould would rip you a new one regarding the "if we have it,
> then evolution dicates it must be useful, or at least once was useful"
> argument.
>
> - Joe
I would think that is open to interpretation. Are hen's teeth (or the potential for them) useful to
the hen today? Nope. Were they useful to the hen in the past? Nope. Were they useful to the animal
that the hen inherited the teeth from? I would say yes, if you take it back far enough :-)
Bill
Atavisms "R" Us.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Apr 29 2001 - 20:26:00 PDT