Indeed, humans are, at the start of our lives, among the most uniquely useless creatures in the entire animal kingdom. Paradoxically this may be part and parcel of the dominant position we hold today—via the so-called Baldwin effect, where we blend adaptation by genetic mutation with adaptation by learning. We are, in effect, tuning ourselves to our environment in software, rather than in hardware. The upside is we can much more rapidly adapt (including genetically) to selective pressures.

https://www.edge.org/response-detail/27178

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