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There is a new paper coming out in PNAS called Neanderthal brain size at birth provides insights into the evolution of human life history (Afarensis)

This paper appeared in Corballis, M, & Lea, S (eds) The descent of mind: psychological perspectives on hominid evolution. Oxford University Press 1999

"Language requires the coordination of perceptually grounded categories with a socially-negotiated set of shared linguistic conventions to express them; i.e. language is based on shared groups of meanings that arise from our perceptual interaction with the external world and the way in which we convey that relationship to other human beings. Deacon's opinion is that neurological predispositions and socio-ecological constraints sponsored the development and evolution of language, and that the subsequent feedback system gave rise to a complex coevolution of the two. Founded neurological determinism within evolutionary and socio-ecological boundaries drives the core of his argument." « Neuroanthropology

"One of the general characteristics that make primates unique are the larger brain sizes compared to body sizes in relation to other organism. His graph is limited in that it shows only the comparison of brain to body sizes of a tribe, within the family Hominidae, under a much larger taxonomic organization, the order Primates." (Primatology.net)

Kim Sterelney. The Baldwin Effect and Its Significance: A Review of Bruce Weber and David Depew (eds) Evolution and Learning: The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered; MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass 2003, pp x, 341.

Article by Terrence Deacon Draft of chapter to be published in B. Weber & D. Depew (eds.) Evolution and Learning: The Baldwin Effect. Reconsidered. MIT Press, 2003

"Within a few decades, machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence, allowing nonbiological intelligence to combine the subtleties of human intelligence with the speed and knowledge sharing ability of machines. The results will include the merger of biological and nonbiological intelligence, downloading the brain and immortal software-based humans -- the next step in evolution." Also found in Are We Spiritual machines? Ray Kurzweil vs the Critics of Strong AI, Gilder and Richards, eds. 1999.

Scientists may have solved the mystery of how human hands became nimble enough to make and manipulate stone tools.

Hill et al. show that expansion of the human cortex during development involves the same brain areas that have changed the most in the evolutionary expansion from monkey to human brains. They suggest that it is beneficial for regions of recent evolutionary expansion to remain less mature at birth, perhaps to increase the influence of postnatal experience on their development.

A growing number of scientists argue that human culture itself has become the foremost agent of biological change. (Seed)

Noesis VI: Article 4

"One of the great scientific challenges is to understand the design principles and origins of the human brain. New research has shed light on the evolutionary origins of the brain and how it evolved into the remarkably complex structure found in humans." Science Daily

"The most complex object yet discovered anywhere in the universe is the organ that fills the space between our ears. Although weighing only about 1300 to 1500 grams (three to four pounds), the human brain contains over 11 billion specialized nerve cells, or neurons, capable of receiving, processing, and relaying the electrochemical pulses on which all our sensations, actions, thoughts, and emotions depend.[2] But it is not the sheer number of neurons alone that is most striking about the brain, but how they are organized and interconnected. And to understand how neurons communicate with each other we first must consider their typical structure."

"Palaeoanthropologists at the Max Planck Institute, in collaboration with scientists at 454 Life Sciences Corp., of Branford, Connecticut, have begun a two-year project to sequence the neanderthal genome. The start of the Neanderthal Genome Project coincides with the 150th anniversary of the discovery of the specimen-type Homo neanderthalensis fossil in the Neander valley near Dusseldorf, Germany." (Neurophilosophy)

Stevan harnad