Aug 3
2009
Babies as Human R&D
I've now run across two articles about The Philosophical Baby
Anyway, in response to the question of why evolution would have created a situation where human babies can do so little for so long, Gopnik responded:
The evolutionary answer seems to be that there is a tradeoff between the ability to learn and imagine - which is our great evolutionary advantage as a species - and our ability to apply what we've learned and put it to use. So one of the ideas in the book is that children are like the R&D department of the human species. They're the ones who are always learning about the world. But if you're always learning, imagining, and finding out, you need a kind of freedom that you don't have if you're actually making things happen in the world. And when you're making things happen, it helps if those actions are based on all of the things you have learned and imagined. The way that evolution seems to have solved this problem is by giving us this period of childhood where we don't have to do anything, where we are completely useless. We're free to explore the physical world, as well as possible worlds through imaginative play. And when we're adults, we can use that information to actually change the world.
"The way that evolution seems to have solved this problem is by giving us this period of childhood where we don't have to do anything, where we are completely useless."
So... what about children in other parts of the world, where there are many things to do - or even in this country just a few decades ago? As a child in the 60's even this young American had to work for his supper.
This quote makes this Gopnik appear slightly uneducated (and more than a little elitist) about the rest of the world. Only the so-called developed places on earth are inhabited by children matching that description. In many locations, it's standard for children to be responsible at a much younger age.
Evolution didn't create that "period of childhood where we don't have to do anything". That is an invention of "civilized society".