Is human imagination a flaw in our natural evolution? We cannot say that we are the most intelligent species on Earth, because intelligence is determined by a species' ability to survive in its habitat. But human imagination, that part of us which allows us to predict the future based on current analysis of a situation, or the ability to think beyond. As far as we know, the Neanderthals and early man did not have imagination and so became extinct because they could not adapt to a hostile world. But humans, who have no natural defences and a weak, soft body, are able to rise to the top of the food chain over thousands of years of evolution, due to their ability to imagine. We imagine that we can fly, so we build aircraft. We imagine that we can eat food in different ways, and so we invented cooking. Or maybe human imagination isnt a flaw, but the only 'defense' we have to enable us to survive on Earth. Without human imagination, the other more aggressive species would have wiped us out long ago.

It does also pose an interesting question as to whether or not our imagination is some sort of evolutionary hiccup. Some primitive species could have been wandering around and all of a sudden went "whoa, wouldn't it be awesome if...?" and then the idea of having an idea about something that didn't exist was spread. Simple terms, I know, but it also makes me wonder if there was some sort of genetic hiccup that appeared and was passed on over the generations. As of right now, we have no evidence of another species in the history of our planet doing this, but the fossil record is a bit thin.

Ever have a feeling that you were going to make a brilliant point, but somewhere between sneezes you lost it entirely? I hate colds.

like a failed attempt at acheiving precognition? no, never really thought about that, hmm...

what genes dictate inspiration?

perhaps ants are the most 'imaginative' creatures after humans. We know that ants share an almost similiar way of life as we do, with them building huge underground cities, dividing their members into different castes (queen, worker, soldier, nurse, teacher, gatherer, farmer, raider). If ants are as big as humans are, I dont think we'll still be number 1 on earth.

Imagination is a result of intellect. Therefore one cannot be intelligent if you are not capable of imagining.
That is how I see it.

i would vote 'no" on that--.

Hmm it makes we wonder why Nature would alow a species to evolve into something that can imagine...imagination has no purpose in the natural world.

imagination destroys Nature, so why would Nature create it? a puzzling question...unless Nature has NO life of its own and life is coincidental...

I write and draw comicbooks for a living so I make a living with my imagination. Its true that imagination has no real practical purpose in nature but then that very reason that we have survived as long as we have because as was stated before we have the ability to forsee what may happen and anticipate it, then be able to build a defense against it.

I think that humans ability to imagine isnt so much as a evolutionary burp as much as its a mutation of a defensive instinct making it where we didnt have to hang out (literally) in the trees. After humanity got to the point that it had its defenses and could survive then we started using our imaginations for pleasure able things such as the invention of music, writing and reading, and art.

Its documented that no other century has had the technological advances that the 20th century saw. My theory is thats because we no longer so much needed to use our imaginations for survival and could devote them to making the advances that have been made. Thats why the first computer ever built was housed in an entire room and in less than 100 years some of us are posting this on a computer that sits on a desk leaving enough room to actually USE the desk and there are others of us that are using a computer that is smaller than the local phonebook and I'm not gonna even going to get into the format that we're posting on, that format being the internet.

The question that I would like to add to this thread is that our ability to imagine and therefor forsee the things that might happen and create things has been a reason if not the BIGGEST reason humanity has survived as successfully as we have, that has been agreed on BUT will that same imagination be the means of our destruction? After all that very thought has been written about (H.G. Wells: The Time Machine) and made into a movies (The Teminator Series). Could we actually IMAGINE and build something that could lead to the total destruction of mankind?

Imagination is wot helps us be creative therefore makes us knoledgeable which in life and in turn and helps aswel as allows our intellect to expaned and grow, as a result of time we create new methods and other desirable things that allpw us to move forward which is a recreational way of evolving and adabting to the enviroment around us.... so as the diversity of this inactment is so vast and yet simple and complicated blah blah blah...Yes i agree that being imagenatives play a very important role in the evoulotionnary movement of the human species....

sorry about my spelling im working with an hangover....

There is a small body of scientists who are mooting the idea that it was Homo Sapiens reaction to taking magick mushrooms etc that actually led us to reaching a higher plane of sentient thought... Ie... it was our imaginations that were the *extra* we had over the animals that led us to talking like this on a forum in cyberspace..

lol.....r u being serious..lol....if they realy came to that conclusion then they r a shame on the human race to even conjure up such a pile of fesis....lol..did they realy say such offal.

Is this about problem solving? Like a monkey using a tool to get food or something? Whenever i think of imagination its just real world experiences manipulated, so then we try new things. So the monkey would think of say a rock and maybe a coconut or something, then mix the two and try smashing the coconut with the rock. I dunno, i just dont think its such an amazing thing really.

Why??I dont understand why you find that so funny?? Ever read J M Allegro's Mushroom and the Cross?

i ask you y would ent u want to have imagination it gives room for free thought and if we had no imagination then weed be like all the othere spises going about our lives withe no wonder of what would hapen next and love would probibly stop igsisting and games and tv and well the world would be boring

I'd also have to vote that it's NOT a flaw. If we didn't have imagination, we'd still be living in caves and defending ourselves with sticks and stones.
Besides, there couldn't be art without imagination. I love art.

I read somewhere that humans are the only species that is self-aware, meaning we know we exist. The other animals are just like robots with minds made up of complex algorithms and they live their lives following a set of programming instructions that were written out when they were born. Humans, on the other hand, are able to imagine, and thats what differentiates us from robots, isnt it? We no longer follow only the kill-eat-sleep-flee policy that governs so many other animals. We are able to invent mathematics, art, music, language, technology.

The fact that our ancestors were able to successfully use tools, gave them leverage.
A spearpoint on a long pole is, or once was, used in initiation ceremonies in Africa. The young men chase down a male lion. Guess who usually wins?

People are a mixed bag, with a mix of brains. Left, right; mammal, lizard. And, we have various glands in the brain which can influence our behavior. Too much hypothalamus, and you get a cannonade. A little less, Tchaikovsky.

I would not characterise animals as mere robots. The other day, a dog saved a family from a fire, by waking the little girl, who roused the family. Or, the sea turtle that saved a child's life, keeping it afloat for a couple of days, before rescuers arrived. Pretty selfless behavior!

Animals are fairly adaptable, and some domesticate with humans, obviously. But, they can be clever at times. I read once the aboriginees of Australia worked with killer whales to capture another type of migrating whale. That worked for ages until someone decided to spear a killer whale. After that, the killer whales never came back.

The question is how imaginative is this Universe?

human imagination is what makes another step in the evolution chart.its imagination that built buildings and space shuttles.it was imagination that gave men wings.

oh!... i really thought u were aving a larf...i look into that one..

The question is how imaginative is this Universe?
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Very!.....more than you could ever imagine...thats wot makes it so fun...we av the power to conjor anything!

my dog is very imaginative... he knows direct words like...open the door...shut the door...open the fridge,cuboards......make t...cook me a roast...l

my dog is very imaginative... he knows direct words like...open the door...shut the door...open the fridge,cuboards......make t...cook me a roast...l

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seriously...i belive that animals all have a spirit that will emit it self from the soul(Temple) when passing on....but for a realistic point of view on that that would mean insects and fish....dolphins which are very intelligent...maybe coz were all vibrations of a form/energies...then it could be seen as just adding more colour to the afterlife or our transition.....as the physicalmaterialistic bio sphere universe/s is obviously incoprehendable in expansivness so the other dimensional levels may be even more....we av to c wot appens wont we....i ope my dog does pass on or i would just hold resentment as he is like my own child...!

Yes. As I stated, there are times when animal/human interaction has risen far above the level of us being a taskmaster, and manipulating animals with shrewd commands backed by starve-or-respond conditioning.

I never meant to convey anything about conjuring, which is nothing I believe in. If one has never looked with appreciation at the design in nature, the perfection of the atomic structure, the process of stellar fusion, the beauty of a butterfly, then they miss the point I was trying to make.

Genetic Mutations caused Language in early humans

no further comment

I still think evolution is phooey.

I pulled my last post because this is a vague lead into the topic of this section.

I frankly find it a pseudo-intellectual effort to stir the coals on the ET posters.

I say move it elsewhere. To the general science section, for instance.