Satanus, besides the trappings of civilization that we take for granted (collaborative effort, agreement on exchange), I believe it was our ability to transmit knowledge to the following generations, first by song and story and later with the written word that gave us an edge. Same intelligence, now broadly shared. The next generation didn't have to re-learn the lessons from the past. Now we have a virtually instantaneous information sharing medium...the internet.
If man evolved?
by tornapart 427 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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TD
The average life expectancy was like 35.
what era are we talking about that all people everywhere only lived to be 35 ?
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jgnat
Good catch, TD. Those that die in infancy bring the average down.
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Heaven
How many of you here actually have any experience of farming, animal husbandry, breeding stock (any animal ) ?
How many of you have any experience in environmental sustainability, bio-diversity and eco-systems ?
* Raises hand *
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TD
How many of you here actually have any experience of farming, animal husbandry, breeding stock (any animal ) ?
I know the difference between a mule and a hinny if that's what you mean Seriously though. Grew up in a rural area and spent summers working on a relative's farm.
How many of you on here, actually have qualifications in this field? Uni, degree's, experience of working in 'the field' ?
Have studied botany. --Do not have an advanced degree, but still attend the lectures. The example of speciation I gave earlier on this thread involving E. grusonii is from fairly recent work by Dr. Charles Butterworth.
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cofty
A few families from a different race move into an area. They breed, say 6 kids each, those kids at 18 start breeding, 6 kids each, the numbers soon grow. - Lost
Wow! Do you read the Daily Mail by any chance?
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Qcmbr
The average life expectancy has risen rapidly with the onset of modern neonatal care and petro-economy farming. If Lost really wanted to see why that makes a difference (and I'm not convinced Lost actually cares judging by the level of research ) a quick google will supply the needed info. Even in medieval times average life expectancy was low but if you survived childhood , wars and major plagues your life expectancy wasn't too bad (plenty of people made it into their 70s and 80s.) There have been times of population explosion (animals experience the same thing) but these are driven by multiple factors from the land's carrying capacity (how much food it can produce), social conditions (war, economic security, cultural expectations etc.) through to environmental pressures (plagues, intermittent rainfall, how much land has been cleared for farming.) Population explosion always moderates when another factor comes into play (simplistically exceed the carrying capacity of the land = famine, live too closely = communicable disease, surplus people and insufficient resources = war, women's education and rights = family planning etc.)
In short, lots of factors conspire to modify the birth and death rates in local places. Populations grow when conditions are right and decline when they aren't. There is no formula you can blithely apply to all mankind and come out with an expected global population.
Case study: Britain. This planet, and Britain in particular was only exiting an ice age that rendered much of the land's surface unfarmable some 10000 years ago.Britain was covered with thick forest which man started to clear about 5500 BP (before present = 3500 BC) and by 2500BP they had managed to clear half of the land. All that effort produced relatively small amounts of farming land that could support small communities who relied largely on hunter gatherer lifestyles until the Romans introduced larger urban centres and better farming. Farming still remained important but not spectacular and up until the 17th centuary , under 3 field crop rotation, land lay fallow 1 year in 3 across the whole country. In 1730 onwards the British agricultural revolution gradually increased crop yields by 30% and this coincided with the industrial revolution, better medicine, more jobs and much closer living conditions. What drove population growth though? Social change. People married earlier, had more affairs (movement to cities and towns often broke concepts of rural community morality), earned money earlier, didn't serve as many 7 year agricultural apprenticeships and so produced more children (they married 3 years earlier on average and had 6% children out of wedlock up from historical 2% rates). The food, jobs, Poor Law (reducing starvation for the poorest), Benthamite public services, amenities and homes merely provided means to avoid Malthusian predictions of population collapse. During this time (1700 - 1800s) life expectancy rose from 33 to 38 and by 1860 was at 40. Also a very young population became critical to the industrial revolution and so the larger a family the more wage earners there were. This all together caused a doubling of the British population.
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sir82
I am similarly befuddled.
The discussion seems to be going something like this:
A) Ignorant poster: How is it possible that XYZ happened? I personally don't think it is possible, therefore it could never have happened
B) Numerous educated posters: Here are links to authoritative sources explaining how XYZ happened.
C) Ignorant poster: Don't tell me to read! Tell me now!
D) Numerous educated posters: OK, here is a simplified summary of XYZ happened.
E) Ignorant poster: Hey - do you personally have a PhD in this field? Then you don't know for sure that is what happened! I personally am of the opinion that XYZ is impossible, therefore it is!
F) Ignorant poster: Hey! why doesn't anybody answer my questions? I must be right since no one is answering me!
???
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mrsjones5
Nice summary Sir.
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cantleave
How many of you on here, actually have qualifications in this field ?
I have a degree in Chemistry and work for a biotech company specialising in oat breeding!
Uni, degree's, experience of working in 'the field' ?
I work in biotechnology
How many of you here actually have any experience of farming, animal husbandry, breeding stock (any animal ) ?
Does genotypic Oat breeding count?
How many of you have any experience in environmental sustainability, bio-diversity and eco-systems ?
Absolutely - its a big part of my job and I have have just written a paper on enivronmental sustainability
Anyone ?
Yes me. But you still don't f*cking listen!
