On Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:59:11 -0600, Virgil wrote:

In article <QrCdnU-QgOvG6FXUnZ2dnUVZ_rmdnZ2d@giganews.com>,
 "K_h" <KHolmes@SX729.com> wrote:

Fermi's paradox suggests that there are little or no other intelligent 
civilizations within the Milky Way galaxy.  On the other hand, intelligent 
life should exist on a substantial fraction of planets with life because 
natural selection broadly increases intelligence with time.  Here on the 
Earth, for example, numerous mammals have a high degree of intelligence and 
I suspect many of them could reach human intelligence with a few more 
million years of evolution.


This contradiction can be resolved if the origin of life is far harder than 
commonly believed.  

All that it would require is that the development of a complex language 
be more difficult than believed.

There is a theory that developments, possibly mutations, in the 
cro-magnon mental heritage and vocal apparatus allowed a complex 
language to develop, and that tose developments were missing in other 
genetic lines like the neanderthals.

The development of writing is much harder than the development of language
itself, which is, in turn, necessary to pass on knowledge from one
generation to another.  Without language, all that you can know is what
you can learn for yourself in a single lifetime.

-- 
MarkA
Keeper of Things Put There Only Just The Night Before
About eight o'clock