LATEST ENTRY

COMMENTARY | Noah Brier

Babies as Human R&D

August 3, 2009 | RSS | EMAIL | PRINT | 3 COMMENTS

I've now run across two articles about The Philosophical Baby and felt like it was worth sharing an interesting idea that shows up in both (the quote actually comes from an interview with the author, though she also wrote an essay that mentions the same idea in New Scientist).

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.

Tags: babies, evolution


PREVIOUS ENTRY | NEXT ENTRY

LEAVE A COMMENT

First name, first and last, whatever you feel like.

Required, but not displayed (so don't worry about spam).

If you've got one, flaunt it.

You can use some HTML (a's, br's, p's, oh my!) if you'd like, if you don't know what that means, don't worry about it.
REMEMBER ME?

COMMENTS

1Jon

"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".

August 18, 2009

2Noah Brier

@Jon: Going to have to disagree with you here, I think Gopnik is referring to the first year or two, where even in an undeveloped nation a child is not expected to do much (at least to my knowledge).

August 18, 2009

3Jon

Thanks for the reply, Noah. Maybe I should have clicked through to read the whole piece? Oops.

I was looking at the quote as if it were speaking of the 13 to 18 year span. I've read some modest amount on child rearing practices of the planet Earth, and 2 seems to be about what I'll call 'the historical age of expectation' for most of our world. The kids may not 'hunt' but they do 'carry water'.

I didn't do the math - we're not actually talking about adulthood at 2. I would have thought at least the age of puberty would apply, which would have brought us to average around 12 yrs, or 15% of our expected lifespan.

You know, I should delete this and remain silent - but I won't. I made an error in my thinking and just caught it. SO here it is - a chuckle at Jon's expense.

Compare that 15% with a common animal, a dog. Life expectancy of around 15 years. Able to reproduce (sign of maturity) after about a year.

That's a bit less than 7% spent as an immature animal, compared with 15% for the human.

I sit corrected and hungry. It's time for dinner. Where's my waitress? (obscure frank zappa reference)

August 19, 2009