Like it. LOL.
Yeah, why not? Most of the world's problems are caused by people taking things seriously.

In for Lunch. Don't take my posts wrong. To be frank. I don't know if killer whales and dolphins and other life forms have the capability of abstract thought.

It kinda makes me wish telepathy would evolve quicker.

Not quite sure about that, but isn't a certain level of abstraction needed to create and use tools?

I would think that there would certainly need to be a pretty good idea of how the tool would work before it was made. Someone, or something, has an idea has a mental image of it and then makes that tool in the image and tests it out to see if they were correct.

Read the OP and the tags, they supply the answer to your question and also supply the key words. Things outside that scope (such as religious symbolism or terminologies, comspiracy theories, etc etc etc.) are outside the scope of this thread.

Your interpretation is correct.

What is a casual reward? However you define it, it is irrelevant. A reward is a reward. Some rewards are tangible: food, warmth, procreation. Other rewards are emotional; they bring enjoyment.

The same way they learn everything else.

It seems you are claiming people can learn from watching (good) television. That is no different from learning by watching others and imitating them. So what is your point?

This looks like an attempt to prove the hand of God.

End of my day. My statement about abstract thought had more to do with beauty, inner harmony, and relationships than with industrial applications.

A dolphin or Whale or Octopus or Squid has no need for the wheel or fire or wrenches. That is my turf. I marvel at how us folks can imagine a rocket ship
carburettor but cannot get along with his neighbor. It is a wonderment. You can build the Taj Mahal but can't end war.

I am not a spiritual type myself. But I do have the sense to wonder about things. So, increased blood flow to the brain huh. I am just a ignorant southern boy but that sounds pretty weak to me also. How is it we have more breakers/switches that cause us pleasure/rewards than other creatures. That is what I was referring to about not knowing if Aquatic mammals and cephalopods (spell checker is yelling at me) are capable of abstract thought.

It all stems from what I mentioned earlier. If a random genetic mutation increases the chance of surviving long enough to reproduce, that mutation will become part of the genome. If the mutations are a different way of synapses connecting; increased blood flow; larger cranium, and consequently larger brain; the result will be a smarter species. Self-awareness and abstract thinking will be results of the more complex brain. In other words, it was an accident.

That is the crux of the biscuit I was looking for. So only we were subject to random genetic mutation. I wonder what caused this mutation. Maybe the mass extinction event that almost wiped us out?

Solar Flare? Sure would be nice to know what was the primer. Maybe one of ya know?
One minute we have fire hardened stick spears. The next we are bringing Mammoths
down with stone tipped sticks and building huts out of tusks.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/scienc...160374925.html

I have not read all of that link yet so mainly my post is layman conjecture.

No everything is subject to random mutation, some things more than others.

Basically mutation occurs due to various factors, some are environmental others just happen.

Mutations do not need to be caused and usually have no cause that results in a change. I am not a geneticist, so cannot explain (and do not even know the minute details), but basically a mutation happens when genes (or chromosomes? See, not an expert by any means.) combine in a new way. Most of these chance occurrences have no effect. An example would be the appearance of a new colour shade to hair or eyes. Some individuals would have that colour, while others, probably most, would not. If, however, the new colour provided an advantage, such as making it easier to blend in with the surroundings, more individuals with that colour would survive and the colour would become increasingly more common. Eventually, probably all members of the species will have this camouflage.

Genes are in a group of things called Allelomporph, or allele for short. An allele can have various forms within its group meaning that for every allele there is you can have multiple versions of genes within that "group". Some genes, as Randicus has pointed out, don't get passed on so they disappear and have no real effect on the species overall while others continue on and to a certain extent get "cemented" into the gene pool within groups or a species as a whole.

This is the single biggest thing that explained evolution within a species at a satisfactory level for me to understand what happens and to personally believe it is true.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_mutation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transposon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiosis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromosome_nondisjunction

Where is your discussion? Posting links shows nothing except that you can post links.