I have read in the past, but am too busy at the moment to find evidence, that human brains have, from the beginning, been significantly smaller than those of earlier hominids and neanderthals. It could be that our brains are constantly shrinking as we evolve, and that this is actually conducive to quicker thinking in some way; the neurons are closer together, or it takes up less energy to do the same amount of work, or something. Perhaps our physical brains actually have very little to do with our intellection, and are merely a means for our non-physical minds to interact with the physical world. Who knows? There's not really that much reason to assume that physically smaller brains mean stupider people.

Yes, as Solasis pointed out...a shrinking brain might not be a bad thing.

The question is, is it becoming smaller through condensing or is it literally losing mass. I dont believe losing mass would be a good thing, but becoming tighter may in fact reap intellectual benefits.

Wow...fascinating article! Thanks for sharing it.
I am going to be pondering this one all day.

Cool article, Guess we reached the peak of evolution so its time for de-evolution

i don't think intelligence was the selective pressure. i think it's far more likely to be physical restrictions.

humans really push the limits as regard pelvic opening -vs- baby head size. relative to other animals, our heads are massive and because we stand erect, womens hips can only be so big. babies with big heads are just more likely to have trouble being born without damaging or killing either themselves or their mother.

in early man, only the toughest and most robust females would survive to reproduce so they were more likely to survive giving birth to babies with large heads. these babies would also be more robust and tend towards big headed babies. the average head size would go up accordingly.

the evolutionary pressure has now switched. women (humans generally) are not as robust as they once were so they are far less likely to come through a large headed birth unscathed. women who produce small headed babies will, on average, produce more children for a greater portion of her life.

[edit on 15/3/10 by pieman]

Excellent pieman!
Sometimes the obvious is so simple eh!

None i would think, unless it became the norm over a great deal of generations. Interesting question that, if reduced head size is explained by evolution, could a reversal work the same way? Probably. An anomaly of humanitys tecknology v's nature.

Makes sense to me! Just take a look at all of the completely stupid morons walking around, mouth-breathing, drooling down their shirts and believing everything the government tells them - complete idiots!!! The fact that their brains are shrinking is quite obvious - what do we know about things that do not get used (i.e. - muscles, digits etc...) - THEY SHRINK!

Sorry, but im not clicking a link to dailymail.

They're terrible!

i would imagine that the abundant food and the fantastic healthcare we enjoy, c-sections included, would drive an increase in the average brain size.

the average height seems to increase by a couple of inches every generation. i believe the factors determining height are fairly similar to the factors that are believed to influence brain size. given a couple of dozen generations we should see an increase.

although, at the same time, technology seems to have reached a point where 24 generations from now we'll have made natural selection totally redundant.

Originally posted by pieman
, technology seems to have reached a point where 24 generations from now we'll have made natural selection totally redundant.

Could you expand upon this point for me . I am curious as to what your vision of a future human entails continuing along our current trajectory .

Thanks .