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Authors: Chip Walter
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of resources. 11 By reducing death and lengthening life, in particular early life,
K
selection also provides species extra time to develop in ways that make them more adaptable. In our case, as Gould put it,
K
selection made us “an order of mammals distinguished bytheir propensity for repeated single births, intense parental care, long life spans, late maturation, and a high degree of socialization.” Today you and I stand as the poster children for
K
–strategy evolution. Yet, while the simple fact that we are walking around today provides conspicuous proof that
K
strategies can succeed, it still fails to explain
why
they succeed. 12
It is possible that it didn’t, at least not all the time. Multiple species arguably walked down this Darwinian road and were snuffed out. Several—about whom we may never know a thing—were surely done in over time by the unrelenting pressures of protecting their helpless infants, braving their environment to get them more food, or becoming dinner themselves for some salivating savanna cat. Is this what wiped out
Australopithecus garhi
? Does this explain the demise of
Homo habilis
or
rudolfensis
? So far the sparse, silent, and petrified clues that the fossil record has left us aren’t parting with those secrets. They are stingy that way.
We do know this: around a million years ago or so—early November in the Human Evolutionary Calendar—the robust primates had met their end, and so had many gracile species, but a handful continued and even flourished. Already some had departed Africa and had begun fanning out east to Asia and the far Pacific. The cerebral Rubicon had been crossed and there was no going back.
This meant that evolution’s forces had opted, in the case of our direct ancestors, for bigger and better brains rather than more sex and more offspring as a survival strategy. And, against all odds, it was working—a profound evolutionary shift. Over time, in the crucible of the hot African savanna, far away in time from the Eden of rain forests, an exchange was made—reproductive agility for mental agility. If bringing a child into the world “younger” was what it took, fine. If expending more time and energy on being a parent was necessary to ensure that a creature with a bigger, sharper brain would survive, then so be it. If evolving an entirely new phase of life that created the planet’s first children was required, then it had to happen. The imponderable forces of evolution had made a bet that delivered not greater speed or ferocity, not greater endurance or strength, but greater intelligence, or put in flat Darwinian terms, greater adaptability. Because that is what larger, more complex brains deliver—a cerebral suppleness that makes it possible to adjust to circumstances on the fly, a reliance not so much on genes as on cleverness.
It is strange to think that events could well have gone another way. Earth might today be a planet of seven continents and seven seas and not a single city. A place where bison and elephants and tigers roam unheeded and unharmed, and troops of bright, robust primates live throughout Africa, maybe even as far away as Europe and Asia, with not a single car or skyscraper or spaceship to be found. Not even fire or clothing. Who can say? But as it happened, childhood evolved, and despite some very long odds, our species found its way into existence.
Chapter Three
Learning Machines
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men
.
—Frederick Douglass
Boy, n.: a noise with dirt on it
.
—Anonymous
Give me the child until he is seven, and I will give you the man
.
—Jesuit aphorism
Youth, the french writer François Duc de la Rochefoucauld once observed, “is a perpetual intoxication; it is a fever of the mind.” Ralph Waldo Emerson was more blunt: “A child is a curly, dimpled lunatic.” We have all witnessed a toddler or two in action (usually and most memorably our own), and it is a sight to see. The
K
selection also provides species extra time to develop in ways that make them more adaptable. In our case, as Gould put it,
K
selection made us “an order of mammals distinguished bytheir propensity for repeated single births, intense parental care, long life spans, late maturation, and a high degree of socialization.” Today you and I stand as the poster children for
K
–strategy evolution. Yet, while the simple fact that we are walking around today provides conspicuous proof that
K
strategies can succeed, it still fails to explain
why
they succeed. 12
It is possible that it didn’t, at least not all the time. Multiple species arguably walked down this Darwinian road and were snuffed out. Several—about whom we may never know a thing—were surely done in over time by the unrelenting pressures of protecting their helpless infants, braving their environment to get them more food, or becoming dinner themselves for some salivating savanna cat. Is this what wiped out
Australopithecus garhi
? Does this explain the demise of
Homo habilis
or
rudolfensis
? So far the sparse, silent, and petrified clues that the fossil record has left us aren’t parting with those secrets. They are stingy that way.
We do know this: around a million years ago or so—early November in the Human Evolutionary Calendar—the robust primates had met their end, and so had many gracile species, but a handful continued and even flourished. Already some had departed Africa and had begun fanning out east to Asia and the far Pacific. The cerebral Rubicon had been crossed and there was no going back.
This meant that evolution’s forces had opted, in the case of our direct ancestors, for bigger and better brains rather than more sex and more offspring as a survival strategy. And, against all odds, it was working—a profound evolutionary shift. Over time, in the crucible of the hot African savanna, far away in time from the Eden of rain forests, an exchange was made—reproductive agility for mental agility. If bringing a child into the world “younger” was what it took, fine. If expending more time and energy on being a parent was necessary to ensure that a creature with a bigger, sharper brain would survive, then so be it. If evolving an entirely new phase of life that created the planet’s first children was required, then it had to happen. The imponderable forces of evolution had made a bet that delivered not greater speed or ferocity, not greater endurance or strength, but greater intelligence, or put in flat Darwinian terms, greater adaptability. Because that is what larger, more complex brains deliver—a cerebral suppleness that makes it possible to adjust to circumstances on the fly, a reliance not so much on genes as on cleverness.
It is strange to think that events could well have gone another way. Earth might today be a planet of seven continents and seven seas and not a single city. A place where bison and elephants and tigers roam unheeded and unharmed, and troops of bright, robust primates live throughout Africa, maybe even as far away as Europe and Asia, with not a single car or skyscraper or spaceship to be found. Not even fire or clothing. Who can say? But as it happened, childhood evolved, and despite some very long odds, our species found its way into existence.
Chapter Three
Learning Machines
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men
.
—Frederick Douglass
Boy, n.: a noise with dirt on it
.
—Anonymous
Give me the child until he is seven, and I will give you the man
.
—Jesuit aphorism
Youth, the french writer François Duc de la Rochefoucauld once observed, “is a perpetual intoxication; it is a fever of the mind.” Ralph Waldo Emerson was more blunt: “A child is a curly, dimpled lunatic.” We have all witnessed a toddler or two in action (usually and most memorably our own), and it is a sight to see. The
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