Many researchers interested in understanding our cognitive evolution have focused their efforts on revealing whether our closest primate relatives and other obviously smart creatures like whales and dolphins are capable of purposeful behavior in the same way that humans are. Being purposeful requires an intuitive grasp of causality, the ability to ... See more

A hunter-gatherer spent most of his day looking for game. Prolonged low-intensity work follow by a burst of intense chasing and hunting. Whereas a farmer puts in continuous work. Ideally, you want a balance of both to accumulate resources and provide protection in case the hunt fails. That said, “We have taken the farming style too far”

The fact is that a jumbo brain is a jumbo drain on the body. It’s not easy to carry around, especially when encased inside a massive skull. It’s even harder to fuel. In Homo sapiens, the brain accounts for about 2–3 per cent of total body weight, but it consumes 25 per cent of the body’s energy when the body is at rest. By comparison, the brains of... See more