THE EVOLUTIONARY ADVANTAGES OF BEING STUPID EUGENE D. ROBIN, M.D* It is generally accepted that the highly developed brain of man with its associated high degree of intelligence represents a decisive difference between man and other animals. It is frequently suggested that a high intelligence from the evolutionary standpoint can be equated with "superiority." This type of thinking has resulted in an anthropocentric view in which man because of his intelligence is regarded as the pinnacle of evolution. This opinion was expressed by Darwin in the conclusion section of The Descent of Man as follows: Man may be excused for feeling some pride at having risen, though not through his own exertions, to the very summit of the organic scale; and the fact of his having thus risen, instead of having been aboriginally placed there, may give him hope for a still higher destiny in the distant future. But we are not here concerned with hopes or fears, only with the truth as far as our reason permits us to discover it; and I have given the evidence to the best of my ability. We must, however, acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar sys-, tern—with all these exalted powers—Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin. [1] Even this glowing tribute is considered inadequate by some modern students of evolution. Witness, for example, the following passages by Sir Julian Huxley: There is, finally, Darwin's failure to recognize explicitly the radical differences between man and other animals, especially between the process of evolution in man and in other animals. It is true that he speaks of high intellectual power and conscious morality as distinctive attributes of our species and implies that human speech is something sui generis as a means of communication; it is true that he regards man as the highest product of evolution. But nowhere does he * Professor of medicine and physiology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford , California 94305. Data used in this essay were obtained with the assistance of Dr. Julio Acevedo, second-year medical students Ronald Dubowy and Lili Gottfried, Dr. Robert Eisner, Dr. Lawrence M. Simon, and Dr. James Theodore. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine · Spring1973 | 369 point out man's truly unique and most important characteristic—cumulative tradition , the capacity for transmitting experience and the fruits of experience from one generation to the next; nor does he discuss the implications of this new human mechanism of change, as he did so exhaustively for the biological mechanism of natural selection. Thus, while overwhelmed by the thought that modern Europeans must be descended from ignorant savages, like the naked Fuegians who burst on his astonished sight, he makes no attempt to discuss or even to point out the fact that evolution from the savage to the civilized state involves essentially not a biological but a cultural change. That evolution is a natural process, involving man as well as all other organisms in its unbroken continuity: that natural selection inevitably generates novelty, adaptive improvement, and advance in general organization: that successful types tend to differentiate into dominant groups: that improvement of the mental capacities of life, or as I would prefer to put it, advance in the organization of awareness, has been one of the most striking trends in the evolution of higher animals, and has led naturally to the appearance of the distinctive mental and moral qualities of man—these ideas of Darwin, I would say, have been especially important for the later development of evolutionary theory. In the light of these facts and ideas, man's true destiny emerges in a startling new form. It is to be the chief agent for the future of evolution on this planet. Only in and through man can any further major advance be achieved—though equally he may inflict damage or distortion on the process, including his own evolving self. [2, pp...
