(October 14, 2011 at 8:27 pm)IATIA Wrote: There are a bunch of people today that can not do calculus. Most probably could not solve a quadratic equation. This does no mean they have not the potential to do so, but rather a lack of education and/or need.
Well I am talking more about the mental potential here, apes do not have the potential to do calculus, nearly all humans do.
Quote: Some aboriginal tribes today are somewhat as backward as ancient man. Can they do calculus?
Just because they did not, does not mean they could not.
Oh! You beat me to my own point; I was going to bring this up. Aborigines supposedly branched off 50,000 years ago, and yet if you adopt a baby from an Aborigine tribe your chances of teaching it advanced math are no less than if you adopt a baby from anywhere else in the world. In fact, physiologically speaking that baby would be no less perfect than babies anywhere else in the world. So it looks like humans have always been as intelligent as they are today, and have always been as physiologically adapted as they are today (Aborigines can donate blood and organs to Asians, Africans and Europeans- and vice versa).
