ryansutter.net

@Erik: quibble over semantics: "found" may be a more appropriate word than "filled"; the suggestion of "filling" an ecological "niche" may unintentionally imply intentional, purposeful adaptation ("Ooh, I see there's a lovely little ecological niche up there, just my size if I were a little smaller etc."). "Filled" also implies that there's no room left in the same ecological niche for non-monkeys.

Well, I stretched your niche metaphor to heck and back. And I said ecological niche a lot.

@James: Anaximander trumps Darwin!

That reminds me of Huxley's quote when first reading "On the Origin of Species". He said: "Why didn't I think of that?"

Sometimes, a moment in history arrives, and someone just has to be at the right place at the right time (Darwin and Columbus come to mind). Other times, an idea is so unique, you wonder if we would have come up with it without one person in particular (I think Einstein is the best example here). Still, Darwin does get credit for coming up with the method first. Just like Newton trumps Liebnitz.

God, I'm a nerd.

(Cool, my anti-spam word is "Buddha")

I remember reading On the Origin of Species when I was still in the group and "didn't believe in evolution." The stuff in there was so obvious I felt as if, had I been born a couple hundred years earlier, I could have been the father of evolution.

Of course I did have some exposure to biological evolution (other than being a product of it I mean) before reading Darwin's book so it's much more likely that I had worked out many of the details in my head only after first knowing the general idea.

Still, it's hard to look at someone like they are so great when you know that if they hadn't done it, the next guy would have.

It's like Euler's first theorem of graph-theory. I came up with that when I was like ten.

Inventors > Discoverers

Thank you for that link! I'm going to go back to it and read it when I have more time because there is so much to learn!
“Evolution is so stupid - if we evolved from monkeys then why are there still monkeys around?”
That is one of the oldest and simplistic refutations. My response is that humans and monkeys evolved from a common ancestor. They filled an ecological niche up in the trees where humans don't fare so well, we inhabited our ecological niche on the ground, using technology (spears, fire, etc.) to compete against other ground-based predators in ways that monkeys can't.
If there's a better reply than mine, or if there's a hole in my arguement, I'd like to know.
Again, Ryan, thanks for the link!
Erik

That's a great link, thanks for providing it.

I always think it's interesting that Abraham Lincoln was born on the exact same day (Feb 12, 1809). I wonder if Lincoln was sitting around one day thinking "You know, of all the people born on 2-12-09, I think I'm the most outstanding". And then one of his cabinet members said: "Actually, Mr. President, you're #2..."

When you left your former religion to go worship Darwin, a mutual acquantance said to me: "Evolution is so stupid - if we evolved from monkeys then why are there still monkeys around?"

So there. Where's your precious Darwin now?