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   From: KC@none.invalid   
      
   Laura wrote:   
      
   >   
   > Maybe "pointless" is an inaccurate way of putting it... What I meant was   
   > that every single part of a living being is finely tuned to perform the   
   > tasks that make it suited to survive within its niche.   
   > Hence, there is nothing in a living being that is not of some use - so no   
   > 90% of brain that isn't used. Nature isn't wasteful.   
      
   Perhaps "finely tuned" is a bit of an exaggeration. Evolution will   
   optimize things as long as that optimatization still produces notable   
   results. Endless fine tuning is sub-optimal, and often an organism is   
   better off simply finding new ways of coping, instead of trying to   
   perfect the ones it already has. Of course, if an organism lives in a   
   very restricted environment, it might be that the only thing it can do   
   to compete against others is to become the best in the one thing the   
   environment allows it to do. But generally, going on to find new ways of   
   competing is better than to try and optimize just one way.   
      
   Taking a look at the human body, for example, we can see it's far from   
   optimal. The body was meant to be supported by walking on all fours, we   
   used to have a tail, the way babies are born prevents their head=brain   
   growing any more, etc. This is because instead of optimizing our   
   abilities as tree-hanging monkeys any further .), humans started to   
   utilize a new way of survival, which was socialization and use of tools.   
      
      
   Cheers, KC   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)