The evolution of human intelligence Essay Example for Free

The evolution of human intelligence Essay The evolution of human intelligence refers to a set of theories that attempt to explain how human intelligence has evolved. These theories are closely tied to the evolution of the human brain and to the emergence of human language. The timeline of human evolution spans approximately 7 million years,[citation needed] from the separation of the Pan genus until the emergence of behavioral modernity by 50,000 years ago. The first 3 million years of this timeline concern Sahelanthropus, the following 2 million concern Australopithecus and the final 2 million span the history of actual human species (the Paleolithic). Many traits of human intelligence, such as empathy, theory of mind, mourning, ritual, and the use of symbols and tools, are already apparent in great apes although in lesser sophistication than in humans. The great apes show considerable abilities for cognition and empathy. Chimpanzees make tools and use them to acquire foods and for social displays; they have sophisticated hunting strategies requiring cooperation, influence and rank; they are status conscious, manipulative and capable of deception; they can learn to use symbols and understand aspects of human language including some relational syntax, concepts of number and numerical sequence.In one study, young chimpanzees outperformed human college students in tasks requiring remembering numbers. This claim was refuted in a later study after it was noted that the chimpanzees had received extensive practice with the task while the students were evaluated on their first attempt. When human subjects were given time to practice, they substantially outperformed the young chimps. Chimpanzees are capable of empathy, having been observed to feed turtles in the wild, and show curiosity in wildlife (such as pythons)[citation needed].Homininae Around 10 million years ago, the Earths climate entered a cooler and drier phase, which led eventually to the ice ages beginning some 2.6 million years ago. One consequence of this was that the north African tropical forest began to retreat, being replaced first by open grasslands and eventually by desert (the modern Sahara). As their environment changed from continuous forest to patches of forest separated by expanses of grassland, some primates adapted to a partly or fully ground-dwelling life. Here they were exposed to predators, such as the big cats, from whom they had previously been safe. These environmental pressures caused selection to favor bipedalism: walking on hind legs. This gave the Homininaes eyes greater elevation, the ability to see approaching danger further off, and a more efficient means of locomotion (see main article for details).[citation needed] It also freed the forelimbs (arms) from the task of walking and made the hands available for tasks such as gathering food. At some point the bipedal primates developed handedness, giving them the ability to pick up sticks, bones and stones and use them as weapons, or as tools for tasks such as killing smaller animals, cracking nuts, or cutting up carcasses. In other words, these primates developed the use of primitive technology. Bipedal tool-using primates form the Hominina subtribe, of which the earliest species, such as Sahelanthropus tchadensis, date to about 7 to 5 million years ago. From about 5 million years ago, the Hominin brain began to develop rapidly in both size and differentiation of function. It has been shown that Great Ape cooperation and communication is severely impeded by their competitiveness, and thus that the apes would revolutionize their culture-bearing ability if they could just shrug off their competitiveness. It is also well known that even early hominins lacked the size and sharpness of their canine teeth that apes use as a threat signal, suggesting prehumans simply had no use for threat signals. That means they had already transcended ape competitiveness and thus developed superior cooperation and communication. There has been a gradual increase in brain volume as humans progressed along the timeline of evolution (see Homininae), starting from about 600 cm3 in Homo habilis up to 1500 cm3 in Homo sapiens neanderthalensis. Thus, in general theres a correlation between brain volume and intelligence. However, modern Homo sapiens have a brain volume slightly smaller (1250 cm3) than neanderthals, and the Flores hominids (Homo floresiensis), nicknamed hobbits, had a cranial capacity of about 380 cm3 (considered small for a chimpanzee) about a third of that of H. erectus. It is proposed that they evolved from H. erectus as a case of insular dwarfism. With their three times smaller brain the Flores hominids apparently used fire and made tools as sophisticated as those of their ancestor H.erectus. In this case, it seems that for intelligence, the structure of the brain is more important than its volume. The social brain hypothesis was proposed by British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, who argues that human intelligence did not evolve primarily as a means to solve ecological problems, but rather intelligence evolved as a means of surviving and reproducing in large and complex social groups. Some of the behaviors associated with living in large groups include reciprocal altruism, deception and coalition formation. These group dynamics relate to Theory of Mind or the ability to understand the thoughts and emotions of others, though Dunbar himself admits in the same book that it is not the flocking itself that causes intelligence to evolve (as shown by ruminants). Dunbar argues that when the size of a social group increases, the number of different relationships in the group may increase by orders of magnitude. Chimpanzees live in groups of about 50 individuals whereas humans typically have a social circle of about 150 people, which is now referred to as Dunbars number. According to the social brain hypothesis, when hominids started living in large groups, selection favored greater intelligence. As evidence, Dunbar cites a relationship between neocortex size and group size of various mammals. However, meerkats have far more social relationships than their small brain capacity would suggest. Another hypothesis is that it is actually intelligence that causes social relationships to become more complex, because intelligent individuals are more difficult to learn to know. There are also studies that show that Dunbars number is not the upper limit of the number of social relationships in humans either

Navy NCDU Teams Essay -- essays papers

Navy NCDU Teams On the beach invasions of Normandy, one of the marines commented, â€Å"Jesus, we don’t even have control of the beach yet and already the tourist are here!†. This is the normal response that the men of UDT get, during WWII in the pacific campaign. They would paint themselves with steaks of blue and white. They were the first ones on the beach and the last ones to leave. They carried no weapons except for a combat knife used for cutting, and crimping the fuses of their explosives. Some say that you would have to be â€Å"half nuts and half fish† to join the UDT. But, besides being courageous and saving the lives of many a thankful marine(although they will not admit it) the UDT did something historical that NO HISTORY BOOK for that matter has cared to mention. They launched the United States into a whole new type of warfare, consisting of underwater commando’s who could rise up out of the water and devastate an enemy, and disappear just as fast, or slip onto an enemy held beach, undetected, and bring back almost any type of information you needed. The latter probably saved hundred’s upon thousand’s of marines lives alone. My report will show you the mysterious, and secret world of the UDT. The first Naval Combat Demolition Unit started with thirteen volunteers who were near the end of their basic training in the Dynamiting and Demolition School at Camp Perry, Virginia. They were sent to the Naval Amphibious Training Base at Solomon Island, Maryland, in Chesapeake Bay where they were joined by other enlisted demolition men and eight officers. Lieutenant Fred Wise from the Sea Bees (Construction Battalions) was designated Officer in Charge. They were given a quick, intensive course in blowing channels through sandbars with explosive hose, and in working from rubber boats to place explosive charges on underwater obstacles which had been modeled by Army engineers. Then they sailed for the assault on Sicily. Twenty-one men under LT Wise debarked from three attack cargo ships off Scoglitti, Sicily, on the morning of July 10, 1943 and waited patiently for orders that never came. The landing waves either found enough water over the sandbars or used alternative beaches. For the next two days the demolition units did useful work salvaging stranded boats, buoying channels through the sandbars, and surveying the be... ...tion units received the only Navy Unit Commendation awarded for the Normandy landing. Navy Crosses were awarded to Ens. William R. Freeman, Gunner's Mate Robert W. Bass, Gunner's Mate John H. Line, Chief Jerry N. Markham, Chief Aviation Ordnanceman Loran E. Barbour, LTJG William M. Jenkins, and Ens. Lawrence S. Karnowski. There were also a number of Silver Stars and Bronze Stars to others who were especially outstanding in a day of widespread heroism. The NCDU regrouped and Lieutenant Commander Herbert Peterson, in charge of Naval Combat Demolition Force "U", with ten veteran UTAH units, embarked in a Mediterranean-bound convoy for Salerno. Here they trained for the upcoming invasion of Southern France. As these combat demolitioneers proved once again the need for and the success of underwater demolition, the newly organized Underwater Demolition Teams, UDT, were proving their worth in Saipan. Many NCDU men stayed in demolition and got to the Pacific in time for the occupation of Japan, but the end of World War II brought the end of Naval Combat Demolition Units. Many NCDU men brought their experience and expertise to the Underwater Demolition Teams.

Ceo Cant Afford to Panic Essay

Joan Kaczmarek suggest that is important to help, he starts by coordinating a census of the people missing within the organization in order to find out whether some of the employees can be in danger. †¢Mr. Smarten is told by the security chief Mr. Paul Schlesinger that the police department are going to call soon to ask if they can use their lobby facilities as a triage centre and temporary morgue. †¢The market has fallen due to the news, the chief investment officer Ms. Dana Rosi advises Smarten to move as much activity to the New York and Chicago offices due to the fact that the investments need to be followed up and she is also worried that lending the facilities might bring negative impact on the company and shareholder’s value. †¢The Marketing VP Mr. Sal Persano is worried about the negative implications that the image and logo of the company appearing in pictures where the victims of the bombing are being kept might bring. †¢The general council mentions that lending the facilities might bring liability issues for the company. The opinions of the different members of the board differ. Some are concerned that lending the facilities in order to aid the police could generate bad association for the firm in the future, other are concerned that the company would fail to act ethically just in order to maintain its image, and others are concerned that the trading operations might be affected and that the firm will be unable to fulfil its obligations towards the clients and maintain shareholder’s value. Problem Identification 1. With little time and limited information, Mr. Smarten faces the dilemma of making a decision that could affect the image of the company for better or for worse. The decision that has to be made needs to take into consideration both the business’s shareholders’ interests while at the same time being an ethical and humane decision that looks for the employee’s, bombing victims and community wellbeing. 2. The team’s point of views regarding what needs to be done differ, as they all look after the interests of the particular area they work for. Issue Analysis Mr. Smarten needs to choose an option that portrays his personal values as well as business professionalism. Should he lend the facilities for morgue use or shouldn’t he? Can he come up with another solution for the request? Should he make the decision by himself, or would a consensus decision making be appropriate? This situation calls for a leader that has self-confidence, trustworthiness and courage as personality traits. Du Brin (2013) describes a self-confident leader as one that can maintain composure and calm when dealing when a crisis, Mr. Smarten firstly needs to communicate this self-confidence to the rest of his team even if he isn’t quite feeling this way. Whatever decision Mr. Smarten take will reflect on how trustworthy he is, his colleagues will conclude based on his actions weather he is a trustworthy leader, especially when they put themselves in the situation where one of them could be present at the bombings. Courage is the leadership attribute that Mr. Smarten will need the most in this type of situation, Du Brin (2013) describes courage as the attribute of a person that takes responsibility for his actions. Organization now a days have complex environments with everyday ethical challenges that must be faced (Hunter, 2003), and therefore require that managers with the appropriate character to deal with them. Du Brin (2013) also mentions the importance of cognitive intelligence as an attribute of effective leadership. Mr. Smarten need to have good problem solving skills that arise from being cognitively intelligent, as in this scenario the time to make a decision is limited; he must also act with creativity. Mr. Smarten needs to have farsightedness in order to understand the long term consequence his decision might bring for his coworkers, the firm and the community itself. In a short term, he needs to have as much insight into the situation as possible, Du Brin (2013) notes that effective problem solving also requires intuition and common sense. The problem Mr. Smarten faces is that he needs to make the most ethically decision possible trying to protect the interests of different groups of people, and most probably some of the decision taken will negatively affect one or the other parties. Mr. Smarten need to act with moral courage, which has been described by Kidder (2005) as â€Å"a commitment to moral principles, an awareness of the danger involved in supporting those principles and a willing endurance of that danger†. In a short period of time, and with the team’s members opinion’s differing from one another, Mr. Smarten could try to apply the six questions to evaluate the ethics of a specific decision (Bentley College, 2013): 1. Is the decision right? 2. Is it fair? 3. Who gets hurt? 4. Would Mr. Smarten be comfortable if the details of his decision were made public in the media? 5. What would Mr. Smarten tell his child or relative to do? 6. How does the decision feel? Hannah et all (2011) introduce the concept of pro-social behavior which describe behavior in leaders that go beyond his specific role requirements, a behavior in which the leader takes action to protect both the organization, coworkers and community. In this particular situation which was triggered by an external event (bombings) protecting everyone’s interest might not be possible by taking one single decision. Potential solutions (Analysis, Advantages, Disadvantages) The following lines explore the potential solutions and why to approve the potential request from the city †¢Inspiring a positive atmosphere in order outbreak the panic if any, with in the group members. Mr. Smarten should have self-confidence, trustworthiness and courage personality traits in order to be able to transfer his commitment to the group and the organization. He should be a charismatic leader, and have a relationship between the group members and the Stakeholders, in order to guide his personality traits to demonstrate self-sacrifice and the high performance, by expressing positive emotions and thoughts to enhance their positive affect. For instance he may mention the positives for his group members and the company; as it is good that no one from the group members is on sight, and fortunately the company is a few blocks away and did not have any damages (DuBrin, P107, 2013). He can also articulate a high emotional message for instance saying; â€Å"that we are encountering a serious situation and if we well behaved, we may save someone’s’ life† (DuBrin, P109, 2013). He can also bring some other successful examples, from another firm’s behaviours as metaphors and analogies to motivate the group and inspire his positive message (DuBrin, P117, 2013). By being enthusiastic, optimistic and energetic, he can create a Vision for others in order to change the room’s total environment from a turmoil horror to a productive positive atmosphere suitable to take decisive decisions. †¢Taking ethical and moral decisions In this part, it is recommended that Mr. Gerald Smarten to emphasize on mentioning the probability of him scarifying his career, if his decisions did not meet with the stockholder’s expectations, in order to help the city. It was already demonstrated that Mr. Smarten was honest and trustworthy in putting out his concerns about the stakeholder’s reactions, in front of everybody, as Mr. Kaczmarek said. Ethically, Mr. smarten should not pay any attention for the Italian marble in these kinds of events, especially when they have 23 employees on absence, while from the other side, he should not ignore the proposition from Mr. Kaczmarek on the same time, as leaders should respect the individual’s opinions. The advantages from this point of view, beside self-satisfaction of taking moral and ethical decision, the benefits that may occur from the media publishing this behavior, in which will have a positive impact on the company’s goodwill and reputation. †¢Turn the crises upside-down into an opportunity. Now, after the recommended decision, which is to accept the city demand, Mr Smarten should lead the group and coach it, trying to make the most benefit out of it. Inspirited from the case of the tragic accident in Chile when 33 mine workers were trapped in a gold mine, the leader Andre Sougarett was able to turn it into an opportunity, when he succeeded with his team, pulling out all the 33 workers alive after 69 days (DuBrin, P2, 2013). This could be implemented when group members start to have the positive mood, high valences as well as instrumentalities. After putting all fears a part and removing horror from all of the team, Mr Smarten should start to motivate all members in explaining his vision and motivate them to have the appeal to perform and produce immediately. As long as he have No alternatives decisions, it is either â€Å"yes† or â€Å"no†, leaders should get out of the box and be creative to bring alternatives to approach decisions (Hmamond, Keeney & Raiffa, 1999). These kind of reactions, like saving lives, can turn the catastrophic events in to a successful story like the one happened with Sougarett (Illiano & Wade, 2010). Nerveless, it can be a lesson for other firms and other industries; an airplane crash can be a lesson in another side of the world for anther industry (Fortune & Peters, 1995, P02). This will conclude that Mr. Smarten should be more autocratic than democratic to take fast decisive decisions in the meeting and send everyone to work to help using the company’s lobby facilities as a triage centre and temporary morgue. †¢Leading by example: Mr Smarten being in such a fix, with everything on the line and with the clock ticking, needs to make a decision quickly. And as the title of the case ready â€Å"The CEO Can’t afford to panic† is true in itself as it is in times like these that people need to step up, keep calm, and make sure that panic does not seep through the entire organization. This is exactly the time where-in CEO Gerald Smarten needs to lead by example. He should have reason and judgement while making decisions. Gerald Smarten should answer the call of the community and provide Kaspa’s lobby as a triage center. The only negative would be the short-term liability issues, but on the other hand this ethical decision would help create and root seed of morale within the organizations, and it will set a good example, and would be good press for the company. This decision is not only the ethical and right thing to do but it will also create goodwill and greater loyalty towards the organization over the long run. Coming towards this decision Mr Smarten has to answer only one question. Would I be able to look at myself into the mirror, knowing that I could have aided and saved innocent people? missing staff ? Best solution Since limited of time and information were provided, Mr. Smarten should make a quick and precise decision whether he should allow lending the company facilities for a triage center and temporary morgue as requested or not. According to this scenario, Mr. Smarten should respond to the request as soon as possible by gathering information inside Kaspa and balancing the benefit of the company, employee and community’s wellbeing. There was no any alternative decisions be provided, he could say either â€Å"Yes† or â€Å"No† so that answering with â€Å"Yes, and†¦. † could be the best solution that balance the benefit for every single side. A good leader should be able convey precise answer while he could raise up any concerns regarding to the issue by adding up the conjunction like â€Å"and†, not â€Å"but† after concrete response, in order to create goodwill and make the respondents open minded to what the leader are concerning. The best solution Mr. Smarten should decide is to say â€Å"Yes, we will help community saving injured victims, but we have to clarify the truth and build trustworthiness toward the firm on media. † The first thing Mr. Smarten could do is to keep clam, not express panic or frustration in order to build self-assured among team member. By doing this, Mr. Smarten could respond to the request by convey such a message to encourage staff to support his decision such as â€Å"We understand that using our company’s facilities to be served as a triage center may reflect negative images to the company and shareholder’s value, but I know we can rebuild trust back to the company. Using positive wording to back up self-confidence of the leader may result to leadership effectiveness Du Brin (2013). In addition, being self-confident could help Mr. Smarten maintain calmness when dealing with a crisis. After keeping himself and others calm during turmoil, he could ask for consensus decision by gather ing all departments to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of each decision that would be made. Ultimately, saying â€Å"yes† to allow lending the company facilities for a triage center and temporary morgue would be the best solution which reflect ethical and humane character of leader as well as create company’s reputation. Mr. Smarten should be aware that there is no decision that would not affect one another so that choosing to help community may result to liability issue afterward which is a short-term effect. However, using the company’s facility to serve injured victims during the crisis can reflect ethical and humane reputation toward Kaspa which is considered as long-term result. This reflects farsightedness traits of leadership; to concern more on long-term result rather than immediate result Du Blin (2013). Meanwhile, Mr. Smarten should show up his leadership skill to get through the crisis by bring out his leadership traits. He could assign one responsible person to be present at the bombing site to enhance trustworthiness and responsibility of himself as well as the company which benefit the whole image of Kaspa and employees (Kalshoven K. , Hartog D. N. , 2009). Whatever the result would be, he should have courage to take responsibility for the decision he made. Even the media spread the news of using the company serving bomb victims; Mr. Smarten could turn crisis to the opportunity build up company’s goodwill and reputation. To be effective leadership, Mr. Smarten should sacrifices the immediate interest of the firm but not an amount of unselfish concern (Ciulla J. B. , 2003) Conclusion Thus as mentioned in the case the troubles caused due to the bombing has impacted the neighbouring community and has put CEO of Kaspa Mr Smarten in a difficult spot. However with certain traits such as farsightedness, reason & judgement, ethical and moral approach and courage are among a few traits that helps him make the tough decisions and be able to successfully lead his team through this tough time.

Essay about Adam Smith and Karl Mark Contrasting Views...

The theory of capitalism describes the essential features of capitalism and how it functions. Adam Smith focused his theories on the role of enlightened self-interest led by an invisible hand or incorrectly the invisible guiding hand, and the role of specialisation in promoting the efficiency of capital accumulation. Some proponents of capitalism emphasize the role of free markets, which, they claim, promote freedom and democracy. For many, capitalism hinges on the extension into a global dimension of an economic system in which goods and services are traded with others and capital goods belong to private ownership. To Karl Marx defined capitalism by the creation of a labor market in which most people have to sell their labor in order†¦show more content†¦He described his own preferred economic system as the system of natural liberty. However, Smith defined capital as stock, and profit as the just expectation of retaining the revenue from improvements made to that stock. Smi th also viewed capital improvement as being the proper central aim of the economic and political system. A major difference between Adam Smiths view of economics and that of present day capitalist theory is that Adam Smith viewed value as a product of labor, and thus operated under the Labor Theory of Value, which was used by basically all economists until the Labor Theory of Value became central to Marxism. According to Marx, the treatment of labor as a commodity led to people valuing things more in terms of their price rather than their usefulness, and hence to an expansion of the system of commodities. Marx also observed that some people bought commodities in order to use them, while others bought them in order to sell them on at a profit. Marx defines capital as money and capitalist production as the use of money to denominate wealth in money terms; these labels refer to John Stuart Mills definition of value in a market economy as being the going price for a good or service. Marx expanded on the Labor Theory of Value to show that according to the Labor Theory of Value, which was the theory of value that was used by Adam Smith,Show MoreRelatedModernity and Classical Sociology Theory Essays1855 Words   |  8 Pages Paul de Man once said, â€Å"Modernity exists in the form of a desire to wipe out whatever came earlier, in the hope of reaching at least a point that could be called a true present, a point of origin that marks a new departure.† But what is he really trying to say? Modernity takes out the old and brings in the new, continually upgrading to something else? Modernity appears as a concept of change. It most commonly refers to the social conditions, processes, and discourses resulting from the Age ofRead MoreOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. 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