Sasquatches of the Past: Did They Really Exist?

[einsteinian77]

Is it true that there used to be real sasquatches roaming the Earth thousands of years ago?

 

[zoobyshoe]

There did, in fact, used to be a huge species of gorilla called "Gigantopithicus" long, long ago.
It doesn't really fit the description of a Sasquatch, though, since they're pretty sure it walked on four limbs like todays gorillas. They found some of its bone fragments in China. I believe, but don't quote me, that they all died out about 500,000 years ago.

 

[selfAdjoint]

Then there was Zinjanthropus, a big relative of Homo Habilis in Africa, who had enormous jaws and teeth. He was nicknamed "Nutcracker Man.

 

[einsteinian77]

Why does everything get bigger as you go further back in time

 

[zoobyshoe]

I have no idea, but it isn't true of human beings and horses, which have been getting bigger.

 

[einsteinian77]

haven't our skulls gotten bigger just in the past couple centuries? I apologize for my constant inquisitive nature its just that I have thousands of questions locked inside my brain.

 

[zoobyshoe]

No, I don't think so. The human scull reached its present size back when Homo Sapiens (Wise Man) came to be. I don't believe there's been any appreciable change in the past two centuries.
If there had been, it wouldn't be evolution so much as improved nutrition, I suspect.

 

[Loren Booda]

Recently, Neanderthals were thought to have a larger cranial capacity than homo sapiens sapiens, but I believe that hypothesis has been refuted (by a superior brain).

 

[zoobyshoe]

Originally posted by Loren Booda
Recently, Neanderthals were thought to have a larger cranial capacity than homo sapiens sapiens, but I believe that hypothesis has been refuted (by a superior brain).

Loren Eisley tells the story in one of his books about a village of oversized headed skeletons that was found in Africa - people long dead without descendents. His thought was that the notions we have concerning cranial capacity and intelligence are wrong, because these big headed people would have been intelligent enough to live on and survive. He might be right, because brains are really about surface area, which is why we have all the fissures in our cerebrums. If you flattened out all the fissures of a human brain you'd have something with a surface area bigger than any other animal. Except dolphins, I understand. Good thing for us they don't have opposable thumbs.

 

[Loren Booda]

The human brain is supposedly the most intricate entity in the universe as we know it.

 

[wasteofo2]

Originally posted by Loren Booda
The human brain is supposedly the most intricate entity in the universe as we know it.

I was watching a special on computers on the discovery channel and they said the approximate amount of operations a human brain does at once (something like 20 trillion) and said that there was a computer in development which could easily excede that amount of operations simeltaneously.

Thus begins the age of the machines and the downfall of man.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Originally posted by Loren Booda The human brain is supposedly the most intricate entity in the universe as we know it.

I would tend to agree with this but I've heard that dolphins do have more surface area. If they were more intelligent they would have no way to manifest it to us, not having the ability to manipulate materials as we do, or the vocal mechanism to reproduce our speech.

Also, if they were more intelligent than us would we be intelligent enough to appreciate it? Do chimps suppose people are smarter than chimps? I have no idea.

 

[einsteinian77]

If they're so smart why do that keep getting caught in nets? It could be that they are more intelligent than us though, considering most of the accomplishements of man are mainly inspired by pure motivation and not intelligence.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Yeah, they're really dumb when it comes to nets but you should see them when it comes to differential equations.

 

[Nereid]

If humans are so smart, how come they keep smoking, buying guns (homo sap sap USus), binge drinking, shooting heroin, keeping up with the Joneses, not exercising enough and overeating, taking broad-spectrum antibiotics for viral illneses, ...?

 

[zoobyshoe]

Yeah, they're really dumb when to comes to cigarettes, guns, booze, heroin,the Jones,'exercise, and antibiotics, but you should see them when it comes to differential equations.

 

[einsteinian77]

Isn't math just a retarded way of establishing something that is already existing inside your brain?

 

[wasteofo2]

Originally posted by einsteinian77
Isn't math just a retarded way of establishing something that is already existing inside your brain?

I don't think architechts already have the whole design of buildings in their brains without using math...

And personally, I don't think that I could calculate the volume of a cyllinder without knowing any math.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Originally posted by einsteinian77
It could be that they are more intelligent than us though, considering most of the accomplishements of man are mainly inspired by pure motivation and not intelligence.

The thing is, if they were more intelligent than us, it would be a kind of intelligence so foreign to our way of thinking that we would not be able to understand or appreciate it. It would be an intelligence suited to life in the water, where you have to catch all your food with your own mouth, suited to navigation by echolocation and vocalization with squeaks and chatter.

 

[Nereid]

at the conscious level anyway

Originally posted by zoobyshoe
Yeah, they're really dumb when to comes to cigarettes, guns, booze, heroin,the Jones,'exercise, and antibiotics, but you should see them when it comes to differential equations.

Feeling hungry, hmm, tasty fish off the left, at 1.32 rads, down 0.02 rads ... sonar on ... distance 45 whales ... turning, turning, executing the 'tuna' maneouver ... let's see, to catch this juicy morsel I'll have to solve the following problems in vector algebra, and optimise a solution to the following 35 partial differential equations, using the following physical parameters ...

Pity the dolphins don't have access to the unconscious processing that goes on in their brains!

 

[zoobyshoe]

Nereid, I think you would have made a good dolphin, if you hadn't been...a nereid. (Which kind are you, by the way?)

 

[Nereid]

Despite my parent's name, it's cold here!

The one like Phobos? (very)

 

[notal33t]

Originally posted by Nereid
If humans are so smart, how come they keep smoking, buying guns (homo sap sap USus), binge drinking, shooting heroin, keeping up with the Joneses, not exercising enough and overeating, taking broad-spectrum antibiotics for viral illneses, ...?

I'll drink to that!

 

[nautica]

Originally posted by Nereid
If humans are so smart, how come they keep

smoking - to get high
buying guns - to kill
binge drinking - to get drunk
shooting heroin - to, once again, get high
keeping up with the Joneses - to get rich
not exercising enough and overeating - to get fat
antibiotics for viral illneses - pure ignorance

Nautica