The relatively rapid evolutionary ascension of the human mind to its current level of ability and complexity is a phenomena that has caused a lot of speculation over the years. What drove or enabled us to evolve cognitive abilities that far exceed those of other species? Why were modern humans the only species to develop a brain as a primary survival tool? Were other species on similar paths but driven to extinction? And what often blocks us from using these abilities?
One way to help us understand this seemingly rapid expansion of cognitive ability might be to relate mental development with an expanding evolution of the complexity of our vocal abilities or language and consider them linked. This conjecture assumes a positive correlation between ability to use language and mental development and that both of these attributes are significantly influenced by biological factors like most of the characteristics of our nature.
Language developed because it was realized as an useful tool. It gave those with greater ability to create and understand a more complex range of sounds and an edge in creating tools, enhancing survival, and creating more effective leadership. Better communication made it easier and more effective for groups to work together and accomplish tasks… including dominating tribes or groups less well organized. Communication was enabling. Those most adept at expressing ideas and using persuasion often became leaders.
Leaders were often accorded reproductive advantages such as the taking of numerous wives enabling them to spread their genes more widely. In fact, even in modern times there seems to be a biologically driven preference inclining women to be attracted to men with greater power or wealth or commonly both.
So a probable scenario might be that changing environments presented changing survival challenges. Tribes most able to communicate were more successful at addressing these challenges since they were better organized through more effective leadership. And communication gave them an increased ability to analyse problems and synergistically work together to develop and execute solutions.
Thus those most capable were successful and thrived… those less so failed and their numbers dwindled. The best communicators were more able to protect themselves and project power with more advanced tools and to create and maintain tribal cohesion. In the process they dominated other groups that were still organized primarily around a hierarchy based on brute force. Language and intelligence enabled the development of superior weapons and those possessing such prevailed in battle with other tribes.
Language also gave those with better communication skills the ability to enhance their manipulative abilities by constructing myths, fantasies or belief systems (“religions”) which then acted as a glue enhancing tribal unity and coherence. Tribal myths could be used to bolster anger or hostility towards other tribes and in some cases dehumanizing them to make it easier to rationalize or justify their extermination in battle.
Of course there were probably many primate species or subspecies on similar paths. If we wondered about what might have happened to them, it would probably be a safe assumption that mentally and technologically less well organized and technologically developed rivaling groups were dispatched in ways similar to the presumed forced extinction of Neanderthals and others. Their lesser language skills resulted in failure to accommodate environmental change and the migration of modern humans into their habitat. There were probably numerous factors, but competition between tribes for limited resources appears likely to have been a significant contributor to the demise of the less capable.
Typically most species do not long tolerate competition for resources in their ecological niche. Throughout our history stronger or more competent societies have demonstrated little tolerance for weaker ones in such battles – viz. the fates in the indigenous populations of the Americas, Australia, Africa, and on in relatively recent times.
We might also wonder about our current gene pool. During the last 10,000 years or so we developed technology enabling us to feed and care for increasing numbers of people allowing greater numbers of the less capable to procreate. Rarely are limits placed on reproduction and our numbers have mushroomed. Irresponsible procreation (meaning people producing children knowing they will be unable to provide reasonable care for them) has been cited as the leading cause of poverty and child abuse throughout the world. It would be difficult to make the argument that there is much ongoing positive selection in breeding based on cognitive ability. In fact, in most areas of the world the less capable appear to have higher fertility rates. The long term effects of this trend on the human gene pool should be obvious.
In the US, if we couple this trend with an electoral system that manipulates and panders to the cognitively challenged while being influenced by huge monetary interests, we should have cause to wonder about the future we are passing to our progeny. It would appear our indulgences threaten to overwhelm and disrupt the ecological balances that not only provide for our sustenance but also the many forms of life and nature that give our lives meaning and enjoyment.
We will probably never understand all of the developmental factors that contributed to our unique intelligence, but speculation regarding our past and where we are currently headed is certainly appropriate. Our electoral systems seem increasingly vulnerable to being undermined and manipulated by hype, fantasy and fabrication. So if we view the modern world as muddling along towards a collapse we can easily visualize world-wide levels of human misery and destitution while the whole process destroys many other forms of life in the process. Unfortunately it seems that our species stumbled upon the ability to create tools more quickly that we have evolved the intelligence to use them wisely. Thus we seem to be blindly traveling a rut hemmed in by walls of growing ignorance and apathy. Sooner or later we will be forced to change our ways… or perish.
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