complexity intro
change & stability
prog. complexity
more complexity
homo nobilis
references
discovery story
implications
invitation
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The Advent of Homo nobilis, stellaris (VI) |
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Physiological evolution is much harder to ascertain with certainty. The problem is the vast scale of time - if only from our perception - over which physiological evolution works. And any sort of certainty is particularly dificult at first emergence. At present it is impossible to say whether certain new phenomena are merely normal fluctuations within the human genotype - or whether they are newly emergent evolutionary phenomena. |
Nevertheless, and given the accelerating evolutionary trends shown here, it now appears that physiological evolution is taking just as large a quantum leap as cognitive evolution. In this context, newly emergent evolutionary phenomena do not come as a great surprise, but are to be fully expected. Here then are several facts which have become widely noticeable.
Markers of Physiological Evolution
Over the last few decades, Northern Europeans have been growing taller by an inch per decade. This is not only well documented, but clearly visible. I had asked an acquaintance of normal height (5'-6") whether she had noticed this on her recent visit to Holland. She answered, with much emphasis, "I felt like a dwarf". This has become a bit of a problem in negotiating standard sizes for the height of doorways, chairs and tables, the length of bed and bedding, head room in cars, and so forth and so forth, among the nations of the European Common Market. Purely nutritional causes appear to be ruled out since nutrition is uniformly good all across Europe.
[Addendum - October 2002] Since I had first published these thoughts on the Web in 1997, this trend towards taller people has now become clearly obvious in North America, and in all races, as well. The other day, I stood in line at the supermarket checkout behind a towering 6' - 2" Chinese fellow, of all people. And as I go about my business in our lively little neighbourhood, daily encounters with 6' - 4" males and their 6' - 2 girlfriends are the norm. And since nutrition has been ample and good - actually very good - in North America for ages, nutrition is clearly not a factor. To get a clearer picture around the world, and since I do not have the means to travel the world, I would much appreciate similar or differing observations - ( pweis@direct.ca) - from other countries of the world.
This suddenly emergent marked increase of height is also accompanied by a proportional increase in the size of the brain. Moreover, a newly emergent trend of an increase in brain size has been noted by the experts among all populations of the world. However, since it is as yet far from universal, the experts are not certain whether this is just a temporary spike within the normal fluctuations of human brain size, or a true newly emergent evolutionary phenomenon. Given the glacially slow pace of physiological evolution - if only from our six score and ten based perceptions - we will know with certainty within five or 10 thousand years.
Nevertheless, I personally know two little girls within my circle of family and friends whose acute intelligence has left me stunned on many occasions. To whit;
The occasion was the third birthday party of a friend's daughter. In the midst of the celebrations she asked her dad, "where does oil come from?" Her dad answered, "what kind of oil do you mean, love? Olive oil or canola oil?" "No, no", she answered, "crude oil".
A three year-old asking where crude oil comes from - and most sincerely? This is not a question of a three year-old; it's a nine or ten year-old's question, at the minimum. And she really wanted to know, out of reasons none of us could fathom. It blew her dad away, for the umpteenth time, and me as well.
On a visit a few years ago, I met the little daughter of my son's friend for the first time. We were sitting on the steps of the porch while her mother prepared supper, and she engaged me in a child's lively conversation of bugs and butterflies she had encountered in her environment. Having brought up five children myself, I was convinced that I was talking to at least a 4 year-old, and maybe a 5 year-old. In time, supper was ready, and while we sat around the table, it came up in the conversation that this little girl just had her 2nd birthday a few days ago. I almost fell off my chair in stunned amazement. There was no way this little girl could just be barely two years old - but there it was, a fact.
Both children are the progeny of very average parents and entirely ordinary upbringing. Yet their highly unusual intelligence has left me stunned on many occasions. Now 7 and 6 years old, the perceptions of the first girl can be best described as a 14 year-old Ann Landers blessed with acutely penetrating perceptions (she is endlessly fascinated with relationships), and those of the second girl, as a 16 year-old born naturalist (her fascination lies with everything that lives) - and she is also uncommonly tall.
And this does not appear to be an isolated phenomenon. Almost everyone I talk to about these things knows of one or more similar cases in their circles of family and friends.
But there is yet another, and readily visible phenomenon which none of the evolutionary experts, or anyone else, at least as far a I know, had foreseen. Larger craniums and smaller faces, and perhaps larger eyes, are the usual evolutional features forecasts by the experts. But none have ever mentioned the now wide-spread appearance of such an exquisitely graceful articulation of the fingers among females that it leaves this writer agape.
| It speaks eloquently, and infinitely better than mere words, of a natural and un-conscious grace of spirit - of a grace of being - that is breathtaking to behold. Let it be noted that this newly emergent astonishing gracefulness of finger articulation goes far beyond the normal gracefulness of female finger movement. And it turns up everywhere, and in all races. At the supermarket, on the TV, in school, at work, among family and acquaintances; in short, everywhere.
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Another newly emergent phenomenon is a similar breathtaking gracefulness of the proportions of limbs in females. Although not yet as frequent and as obvious as the newly emergent exquisitely graceful articulation of female fingers, it has left this writer agape with astonishment for hours on end on several occasions.
It now appears that evolution is now also bestowing an exquisitely beautiful gracefulness of physical form and movement upon our kind - to culminate in a grace of body, mind and spirit which goes leagues beyond anything that we have known so far. And while this may be entirely unforeseen by us, it nevertheless stands to reason. It should not come as a surprise that the essential grace of spirit of Homo nobilis should also come to be fully expressed in physical form and motion.
There is one more and final aspect to be considered - the Stability function in the dynamics of evolution - which comes next.
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