I'm not sure that any attempts to guide humanity's collective path will be ultimately successful. No one that I know of, in the millions of years since humans have been around, has been able to alter the direction of society as a whole from that which is commanded by nature, and many have tried.
If in fact genetic engineering did achieve this, by society giving genetic engineering a free hand, I think it would likely result in a complete loss of identity and sense of direction and cripple the human race for good. Because we move unconsciously within the framework of our own nature, without realising that there is always that invisible hand guiding us. If we removed that framework, what would we be? Humans? I think not. Animals? Definitely not. Schizophrenic psychopaths? Probably. Would we be able to save ourselves at that point? I think we may find out soon.

In Paraguay now. Eating mangoes and bananas from my grandmother's yard, cabbage salads, eggs and meat. The birds got all the avocados before I could get here
Very nice to be away from the city!

I would see a physiotherapist, because no one here has the knowledge that they have of injury rehabilitation. A long-term injury is something that requires very careful management if it is to heal properly.

From my experience, exercise (increasing blood flow, but not to the point of pain) and stretching is usually what these injuries respond best to.

I used to train Muay Thai and I am quite sure that I injured my IT band kicking and being kicked in the thigh, and it never properly healed, especially when I didn't exercise at all. I had `snapping hip syndrome' where it feels like the side of my leg is tight, and then it suddenly pops. I believe that this came about when I began favouring the other leg and didn't quite extend the injured one as much when walking, and the IT band became tight.

I do jogging now and spend a LOT of time stretching all my muscles, and it is rare now for me to have the snapping hip thing. But when I stop exercising and stretching, I seem to get it more. Maybe if I stretched every day, it would heal better. I do now make a point of walking in a very balanced way and with good posture, and if it feels tight, I stretch it, and this seems to work very well.
Cheers

I think Cherimoya_kid has a good point. Vitamin D is used extensively in bodily processes, and helps absorption of minerals such as calcium and phosphorous which are used to repair bones and ligaments. I think very few people get enough of it these days.
I am not suggesting that you shouldn't see a doctor, but the human body is capable of extraordinary healing if it is provided with the right materials and environment. Don't forget to move it about gently all the time to increase blood flow, if it is not painful.
Cheers
 

First time I've heard of safus! What do they taste like?
Cheers

Hi,
I've been reading about adult stem cells, which from my understanding are cells which have no particular characteristics until the body determines the need for them. Apparently there are a lot of them in areas of the body which experience a lot of regrowth, e.g., fingernails, teeth.
I wonder if the brain doesn't have them too, and can utilise them to form additional growth and extended functions in the brain, if the correct stimulus (e.g. learning) is applied.
Furthermore, if these stem cells can be constantly produced, it would provide the necessary materials and environment for brain evolution, the only stimulus required being learning.
It would go a long way toward explaining evolution, for example. At least in addressing my own questions on the issue.
Cheers

Thanks Dorothy!

Hi Paul, thanks. And welcome to you, too.

Dorothy, I agree with you.
It's like saying a typewriter is more advanced than an ipod because its bigger. It depends what's inside. Besides the neuron density, the brain has a lot of different components, the relative sizes of which can deeply affect `intelligence' based on individual perceptions of what intelligence is. I mean, a dog can smell a hell of a lot better than a human, and I'm sure it has to do with increased neural activity in some part of the brain. Does that make it more intelligent? Science doesn't really know very much about the human body at all, in my book.
I must say that I do theorize that there is a limit to the capability of a certain size of brain, a limit which can be raised if it is enlargened. However I am not sure.

Paleophil, I know that omega 3 is a fat, but it is a certain type of fat. I am arguing that dietary fat as such is not conducive to human brain evolution or development. Fish has ten times more omega 3 than the richest red meat, and so a few sardines, which overall are very lean, would provide the same omega 3 as a few kilos of beef.

I don't know where this perception came from that brain development requires some gigantic amount of fat and energy. It is a little computer which uses a surprisingly small amount of power. Most of the energy consumed is used in heating and maintaining a very big body, as well as muscular activity. Therefore I would be much more concerned with the type of food I was eating, than the overall quantity. A lot of people believe that if they drown themselves in the vitamins, they will get `superhuman powers'. Luckily for them, the body tightly regulates that sort of thing or they would poison themselves. I believe its the same with fat, except that its not well regulated. Eat too much and you'll probably just get fat, and probably develop a lot of health problems as well.

I don't have any worthwhile theories yet on why the brain evolved, but it didn't have to do with raw energy or simple fat as far as I'm concerned.

I don't want to try vegan at the moment, thanks very much, because I doubt that I would be able to avoid all the problems I have heard others describe. Problems which can be entirely avoided with small amounts of the right kind of meat. Just look at the Okinawans, living healthily to 114. They eat a bit of fish every now and then, and mostly vegetables and rice (not raw though). That's all the proof I need to know that I don't need a lot of fat.

It seems like people have to swing from vegan to carnivore and back again, without stopping to check what's in between.

Cheers

There's an interesting SF book by William Golding, "the Inheritors", about Neanderthals having telepathy which meant they never developed language like humans had to, so this is the glib explanation for why Neanderthals died out. I personally wouldn't be at all surprised to find that the Neanderthals were more intelligent than modern humans in actual fact.

Sounds like an interesting book. It doesn't sound likely, but then again a lot of people seem to think that our evolution is at an end. It may conceivably have ended a while ago, but technology still came forth as a completion of the expression of our abilities.
I respect science, but I'm aware of the shakiness of the foundations for many of our conclusions.
I think my Dad has it somewhere. I'll definitely look it up.

The idea is that a much bigger hominid brain requires a hell of a lot more energy to sustain itself, and fat has far more of that in it than proteins or carbohydrates.

Brains consume a lot of energy and larger heads could reduce speed, balance, agility, etc.

I don't imagine that the brain uses more than 20% of the total calories required, which for a 2000 calorie diet is 400. If the brain became 1.5 times bigger, the difference is about 200 calories. This is not a great deal by any stretch of the imagination.

We're talking about paleolithic times here!
The kalahari bushmen currently live quite well in the middle of the kalahari desert, where you or me would drop dead in a few hours. They are confined to limited reserves in the hope that they will decide to join the city life. They compete with sports hunters and a very strained, very lean ecosystem, and according to a few sources only need to spend a four-hour week (excluding food preparation) gathering food.
I would say that by comparison, our paleolithic ancestors in the tropics would have been presented with such a buffet that they wouldn't know where to start! 200 calories more would not have been hard to find.

Let me state again my argument:
Dietary fat did NOT result in a bigger brain
Omega 3 likely CONTRIBUTED

Eating more seafood may have contributed to a bigger brain because of the availability of omega 3. But, as Sabertooth's article implied, it had to do with the introduction of seafood, not some kind of explosion in meat-eating in general, because the Neanderthals already ate a lot of red meat, and did not appear to experience any measurable difference. It definitely, in my opinion, had nothing to do with eating more fat as such.

I agree with Paleophil that probably a small difference in brain size equals a small difference in intelligence, but as Dorothy said the current tests are debatable and on the whole this is a very  debatable matter. Personally, I think it would have a lot to do with active neurons or something like that. However, if a brain doubled in size, I believe it would be significantly more intelligent.

Lastly, the idea that a big cat already gets enough food and so it will not evolve does not sound right at all to me. If that were the case, if humans started eating a lot of fat, they would cease to evolve, rather than grow a bigger brain.
Cheers

Hi Tyler
You're right, I am not so sure about the IQ test myself and probably shouldn't have used it as an example, but I was simply trying to point out the lack of definite correlation between brain size and intelligence (I wonder if there is really any useful intelligence test?)
I also very much agree with you regarding cultural influences.
I doubt that we use the full capacity of our brains on an everyday basis, the same way that we can do superhuman physical feats only when under extreme stress and under high levels of adrenaline. Perhaps we use only use a certain percentage of the `strength' of our brains, though we utilise all of its parts.
I believe that `we are what we eat' and diet has a profound influence on everything about us including our brains. I do not however believe that a simple excess of dietary fat resulted in a larger brain size, or certain large cats would be running the world right now.
Cheers