Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Cool It

I was thinking the other day.
A dangerous proposition at best, for me. No telling where it may lead.
I was thinking about evolution.
Various creatures evolve different physical characteristics to deal with the environment. Thick fur for a cold environment, blubber for the same. Long legs for wading birds. Long necks for giraffes. The list goes on and on.
If you study the animals from North Africa, they have also evolved some traits that help them deal with their environment. For instance, the elephant has these huge ears. What is their purpose? Cooling. They are large and thin and mobile. The elephant flaps them around to dissipate heat.
According to prevalent theory, man evolved in that same environment. So what unique characteristics did we evolve to better help us deal with out environment? We are not large, not quick, not ferocious, have no fangs or claws.
We do have a disproportionately large head. And a disproportionally large brain to go in it. What function does this organ perform?
Cooling.
It is a big radiator for the body. You lose more body heat from your head than any other area of your body. That's what it does.
Nature, evolution, or God gave us this organ as a cooling tower.
It is merely an accident that, having this large organ to hang our hats on, it developed intelligence. Since it took a lot of gray matter to cool our blood, it accidental turned out that it could serve a dual purpose.
Cooling was it's initial purpose.
Intelligence was merely a by-product.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

most people barely even use the cooling function...

Al said...

NCP: Those would be the hotheads, huh?