Why did humans evolve to be so intelligent compared to other species?

Question

Why did humans evolve to be so intelligent compared to other species?

Answer 1

i've always wondered the same thing..

why would humans evolve and become so extraordinarily intelligent compared to any other species?

why would we, who supposedly initially were basically at the bottom of the food chain, develop such a complex brain?

my only explanation is God. idk if you believe in a god or not but really why would we be so unusual and unique compared to other species if he had not specifically made us to be so?

i find it to be unlikely that we just happened to develop so far and beyond any other species and branched off of monkeys who come nothing close to our intellectual capabilities.. or any other animal for that matter

i mean yes dolphins and monkeys are smart. but compared to our out of the box thinking and our creative intellect its nothing close

Answer 2

That is a very interesting question.  Considering our evolutionary timeline makes us the "baby" species, I too find it odd that we speedily progressed along the short spanned time.  Just the size and capacity of our brains dosn't explain it-social interaction can not as well.  Divine intervention gives an explaination, but can not proof.  One of the great mysteries of the universe.

Answer 3

Personally i think it has something to do with the invention of  language. The day our vocabulary went from grunts and huffs to words of expression, (expression being the key word here) i think creativity spawned intelligent thought.

when we think we use language to speak to ourselves. imagine someone speaking to themselves in grunts versus words or symbols.

just a thought..

Answer 4

We didnt evolve to be more intelligent, God created us to be more intelligent ><;;

Answer 5

In every aspect of ability or characteristic, there is a difference between animals, including humans. It is the same with intelligence. Something has to be the largest, the most poisonous, the strongest, the fastest etc. We are the most intelligent. The other apes are almost as intelligent, as are dolphins, but there is gradation in intelligence, like anything else.

If Neanderthals had not become extinct 30,000 years ago, there would have been two human species of roughly equal intelligence, just as the chimpanzees and bonobos and orang utans are roughly equal in intelligence.

No divine intervention or magic need be involved, just ordinary adaptation and competition to survive.

Intelligence is a distinct advantage, even within a troupe of chimpanzees, as they hunt as an organised, semi disciplined group, with leaders and followers, just like humans. It is not difficult to see the advantages it gives to animals who have it.

Answer 6

Because we are neither the biggest, strongest nor fastest of the animal kingdom, so we had to find something else to give us an "edge" over the other animals...

We choose to use our mental energies, to compose strategies, such as building traps, to catch larger animals, and making weapons. In a sense, we are the best pre-meditated killers among the animals. We even domesticate hoofed animals, only to slaughter them unsuspectingly for meat, sometimes just hours after we feed them...

This contributed to our development of language, and the more meat that we ate, the larger in size our brains grew. Bi-pedalism allowed us to free up our hands unlike the knucklewalkers, so we could carry things more efficiently, as well as actualize what we were thinking, through the use of our hands...

Answer 7

Who said we were?

Answer 8

what do you mean other species?

Answer 9

I think *lexie* is closest to the best explanation so far, Except that she and IDists (creationists who believe in Intelligent Design as the answer to our origin) should replace the word "god" as our originator (because it conjures up ideas of an all-loving, all-protecting, all-mighty and all-perfect entity and there is no evidence of such a "being", in fact the evidence, of Tsunami type mass-murder, human-like catastrophic errors and traumatic sufferings of innocent humans, etc., shows the opposite) to "EXTREMELY ADVANCED Extra Terrestrials" (Of the trillions and trillions of other planets in the universe, it is feasible that there could be our type of life, MILLIONS of years older and, therefore millions of years more advanced than us out there.  Well I think it's far more feasible than the "PERFECT GOD" of the creationists, or the "GOO-TO-YOU" theory of the evolutionists explanations of our origin and neither of them have unequivocal proof that they are right, either.  

The ET explanation, 'comic book' that it seems (though less 'comic book' than ANY other explanation so far), is the reason for our 'super' intelligence.  We were 'designed' that way.

It's a lot to swallow, but think about it.  It's not as crazy as it sounds!

Answer 10

Humans.... Intelligent..... I haven't noticed.

Answer 11

Someone has to be able to help animals when they become "endangered."

Answer 12

I wonder if insects and all other life forms ask themselves the same question.

Answer 13

bcoz we rule...duh

Answer 14

Your assumption is sadly over drawn.  Have you ever been around a pod of dolphin?

Answer 15

I'm sorry! I misunderstood.

I thought you used the phrase, " so intelligent" in reference to

Humans!

Oh! you didn't mean humans in general. You meant that very minute segment of the human population that is actually intelligent, those individuals who actually make the intellectual breakthroughs for which we all take credit...as   humans.