top of page

A glance at the human experiment

In today’s blog we take a peek at evolution with Dr. Ian Tattersall, PhD from Yale University, and Curator Emeritus and Senior Scientist in Residence at the American Museum of Natural History.


David: Is there randomness in the story of human evolution?


Ian: Every evolutionary history is deeply affected by random external events. Paleoanthropologists are finally beginning to realize this.


David: Did language inspire more complex forms of language in a kind of bootstrapping effect?


Ian: I would guess that language, once invented, rapidly acquired all of its nuances. Including its tendency to diversify.


David: To what extent is it reasonable to make a break with our past in trying to build a viable modern civilization?


Ian: We were clearly not fine-tuned by nature to be the kind of creature we are. So we have the ability to change, unshackled by the past.


David: Feelings of jealousy or envy affect human interaction in negative ways. Did humans evolve with a stronger sense of the individual compared to the group? Would it be scientifically legitimate to attempt to identify current pressures in our environment that lead to collective well-being?


Ian: Humans are extremely prosocial, with a keen sense of group membership, yet each individual mentally constructs the world in his or her own way. If you could think of a way to adjust the environment in such a way that everyone spontaneously behaved so as to align the individual and common interest, that would be to everyone's advantage.


David: Is it possible to identify pressures that may have an impact on human evolution?


Ian: Being human is a very young experiment, and we are far from having explored all of its ramifications. Anything is possible, which is both exciting and scary.


David: Thank you Professor!




18 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Today we enter briefly into the world of Gabriella Greison, degree in nuclear physics from the University of Milan, physicist, writer, and performer, referred to as ‘the rockstar of physics’ by Italia

Today we come face-to-face with a radical claim made about the theory of general relativity with Dr. Roy Kerr, PhD at the University of Cambridge and the man for whom the Kerr solution to the Einstein

Post: Blog2_Post
bottom of page