i can imagine, as a complete nonexpert, that there was some kind of phase transition. And i can imagine that there was a transition from other prima brains to the human brains that gave us levels of abstraction or counterfractual thinking. Do you think t there's some prospect for locating such things physically in the brain as we understand the human brain more and more? Not a hope. We're not getting anywhere with this one at all. I see therere probably time's getting on and your patients more more than anybody elsesbut the way we're gan to answer all this is to find an extra terrestrial. So ask me about the wo and de theyrasgonas
Evolution by natural selection is one of the rare scientific theories that resonates within the wider culture as much as it does within science. But as much as people know about evolution, we also find the growth of corresponding myths. Simon Conway Morris is a paleontologist and evolutionary biologist who’s new book is From Extraterrestrials to Animal Minds: Six Myths of Evolution. He is known as a defender of evolutionary convergence and adaptationism — even when there is a mass extinction, he argues, the resulting shake-up simply accelerates the developments evolution would have made anyway. We talk about this, and also about the possible role of God in an evolutionary worldview.
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Simon Conway Morris received his Ph.D. in geology from the University of Cambridge. He is currently an emeritus professor of evolutionary paleobiology in the Department of Earth Sciences at Cambridge. Among his awards are the Walcott Medal of the National Academy of Sciences and the Lyell Medal of the Geological Society of London.
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