The curse of human uniqueness theories.

"Baron-Cohen postulates that between 70,000 and 100,000 years ago a genetic change took hold in the human brain.."

bit.ly/3uNeVR2
This is not a great look. I'm sure there is more to the book, but this report springs to eternal trap of simplistic single ideas that 'make us human' where evidence is slight.
I would suggest reading Transcendence by @WanderingGaia, Kindred by @LeMoustier, or the Book of Humans by me, which avoid these traps.
Instead, they reflect the complexity of social interactions, demographic transition and many other factors that resulted in what we regard as full package of behavioural modernity.
Uniqueness theories always fail. There was not one thing that 'made us human'. Inventiveness and tool use are certainly part of the mix, but it is in the retention and distribution of ideas that we see population growth and the emergence of behavioural modernity.
I will read the book of course, I'm just unimpressed by this article. There's a whole industry of uniqueness theorising for 'what makes us human'. Fire, psychedelics, fear of snakes, language, tools, non-reproductive sex, cooking, warfare.

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More from @AdamRutherford

8 Apr
Well this is interesting. London mayoral candidate and former actor Laurence Fox has adopted the Glass of Milk emoji in his twitter handle. This is commonly used by White Supremacists in a misplaced attempt to indicate racial purity via lactase persistence.
Here's another example from Richard Spencer, described by wikipedia as an 'American neo-Nazi, antisemitic conspiracy theorist, and white supremacist'.
I don't know whether this is Fox's intention or not, but this is a well known code used by White Supremacists.
Read 10 tweets
8 Apr
This myth is asserted again and again, and yet it is clearly untrue, as the simplest of googling shows. The Twitter discourse is also brimming with these topics, but mostly it’s ignorant badgerspunk nonsense by look-at-me pub bores loudly asserting their silencing.
here is a comprehensive debunking of the mythical academic taboo about race and intelligence by @jpjjr1961 journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…
I have written a book about race science and am writing a book about eugenics, and am permanently overwhelmed by historical and current academic papers on both subjects.
Read 4 tweets
6 Apr
CRISPR gene editing for intelligence. I am writing about this idea in my new book on eugenics, which right wing provocateurs seems to be chuntering about these days. Some brief, practical thoughts:
Set aside the ethical issues, and just focus on the scientific and legal for now.

Legally, germline editing in humans is internationally prohibited in human embryos that can come to term (14 days post fertilisation is typical and heavily regulated limit).
(Mitochondrial replacement gene therapy is one exception, though this is not gene editing so much as replacing a whole chromosome.)
Read 19 tweets
2 Apr
The flag represents the freedom not to fly the flag. It represents the opposite of government compelling people to fly it.

No flag on @tomhunt1988's website by the way. Am I really going to have to do this all again?

bit.ly/2PuwAxN
@tomhunt1988 No union flag on @tomhunt1988's constituency homepage

bit.ly/2PSldiS
@tomhunt1988 Oh god it's happening again

No union flag on @tomhunt1988's election manifesto

bit.ly/2PvC8rJ
Read 6 tweets
1 Apr
'There is a new story about the Caribbean experience which speaks to the slave period not only being about profit and suffering but how culturally African people transformed themselves into a re-modelled African/Britain.'

I keep staring a this sentence in the #RaceReport
It doesn't really make grammatical sense. What new story? The Caribbean experience of what? Being shackled and beaten? How did that speak to how 'culturally African' people transforming themselves?
What does this mean?? What remodelled African/Britain? How do enslaved people transform themselves into a country/continent? This is fucking nonsense.
Read 6 tweets
22 Mar
This is the Conservative Party Manifesto for the 2019 Election.

64 pages, How many Union Jacks 🇬🇧, @jamesowild?

Zero.

bit.ly/3sdbtyd
@jamesowild This is MP for North West Norfolk James Wild's website.

How many Union Jacks 🇬🇧, @jamesowild?

Zero

bit.ly/2PcODIl
This is MP for North West Norfolk James Wild's Facebook page.

How many Union Jacks 🇬🇧, @jamesowild?

Zero

bit.ly/3sgc8Pe
Read 14 tweets

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