Thread: Humans in muds
View Single Post
Old 02-03-2003, 10:05 PM   #2
Yui Unifex
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Florida
Posts: 323
Yui Unifex is on a distinguished road
Send a message via ICQ to Yui Unifex Send a message via AIM to Yui Unifex
Question

Human instincts are severely diminished when compared to other animals; this is related to their adaptability. While a number of studies have been done on the nature vs. nurture debate on both animals and humans, humans without a doubt obtain more survival-essential material from the nurture side than animals do.

This is also a major factor in their being more adaptable than animals: Optimal survival knowledge varies from area to area. It's easier to instill knowledge when you don't have to override any instincts that were evolved for a different climate, food abundancy level, regional predators, competing humans, etc.

Adaptability is most definately a metric separate from intelligence, although the two are closely related. Biology courses often show that evolutionary adaptability is closely related to the lifespan of the animal. But intelligence plays a much more intricate role as far as adaptability is concerned. Intelligence is generally used to indicate memorization or skilled-sets of knowledge such as magic or foreign languages. Wisdom is generally used to indicate how easily one picks up new knowledge, perception and cynicism, and applications of knowledge. One can be a highly-intelligent but absent-minded professor, for example.

The reason I point out the note about lifespans with relation to adaptability and what intelligence is generally supposed to measure is that they are two keys to the puzzle of explaining why humans are considered adaptable. Elves having high intelligence but longer lifespans generally result in Elvish traditions lasting longer than human traditions. When new generations are fewer between, values such as "thou shalt not become a berserker" are less likely to be challenged, causing Elves to be less adaptable than humans.

That being said, I do agree that it would be better defined in terms of regional culture than by race. It is silly to assume that humans never place restrictions on themselves, just as it is silly to assume that there are no exceptions to another race's adaptation.
Yui Unifex is offline   Reply With Quote