Calculus, Logic, Music and the Human Brain

[Jackalope]

They are still Homo Sapiens. The previous 'man' may have only had the capacity for quadratic equations and the one before that, simple math.

At the risk of getting sucked into one of Statler's threads...

I look at it this way.

Prehistoric homo sapiens and I have two things in common with respect to advanced math. Like them, I lack the knowledge needed to perform calculus - I never learned how, and clearly neither did they as it had not been invented. Also like them, I also lack the necessity to do so - calculus isn't necessary in my personal life or career, and it wasn't needed to hunt game, herd goats, build structures, perform agriculture, etc. I have no need to learn calculus, nor did they.

I don't lack the cognitive capacity to learn calculus if I chose to. Did prehistoric man? The question is largely moot, as before the advent of written language, there would be no way to pass down the knowledge to do so - not to mention as I said before, that calculus had not been invented. Whether or not prehistoric homo sapiens had close to the cognitive capacity we do is unknown, and is probably unknowable.

Further, I note that prehistoric man apparently had no problem with learning and inventing things that were useful to them. Same as us - we have the added benefit of thousands of years of knowledge and discovery since the advent of written language, and that's enough.