Is cognition a form of psychosis?

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The almighty Robert Trivers (Peace Be Upon Him) suggested that human intellect evolved in an evolutionary arms race between cheaters and cheater detectors. One of the reasons why they slapped a Nobel Prize on John Forbes Nash.

http://www.cdnresearch.net/pubs/others/ ... _recip.pdf (see page 54)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_arms_race

It is therefore quite plausible that humans have "more" cognition than actually necessary for simple survival. Survival just wasn't simple in the Pleistocene.

From the perspective of macroevolution, it may thus at first glance seem odd that humans have such a high brain-to-body mass ratio, but if we need to be smart in order to be good at backstabbing others while avoiding being stabbed in the back by others, then it suddenly makes much more sense.

Simplicity itself!

Fascinating......got a bit complicated, but still.... I'll have to read it again.....

Fascinating! Brains made for more social interfacing and networking in the first place. And then living in society became a Darwinian Challenge that required even more brains. And so it goes. If the theory is true, we should be getting smarter and smarter over the eons.

ruveyn