Clipmarks | Boskops Clips

The Extinct Human Species That Was Smarter Than Us

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:49:28 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

The superintelligent Boskops had small, childlike faces and huge melon heads.

“Sometimes I think my head is so big because it is so full of dreams,” says John Merrick in the play The Elephant Man. He might have been speaking for the Boskops, an almost forgotten group of early humans who lived in southern Africa between 30,000 and 10,000 years ago. Judging from fossil remains, scientists say the Boskops were similar to modern humans but had small, childlike faces and huge melon heads that held brains about 30 percent larger than our own.

ust as we’re smarter than apes, they were probably smarter than us,” they speculate. More insightful and self-reflective than modern humans, with fantastic memories and a penchant for dreaming, the Boskops may have had “an internal mental life literally beyond anything we can imagine.”

They also explore what the Boskops’ big brains tell us about evolution (why didn’t they survive?) and about the future of human intelligence (can we engineer bigger brains?

Tags: boskops, brains, intelligence

Forgotten Ancient Human Species May Have Been Brilliant

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 06:09:06 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: A race of Einsteins?

Clip Source: discovermagazine.com

The superintelligent Boskops had small, childlike faces and huge melon heads.

an almost forgotten group of early humans who lived in southern Africa between 30,000 and 10,000 years ago. Judging from fossil remains, scientists say the Boskops were similar to modern humans but had small, childlike faces and huge melon heads that held brains about 30 percent larger than our own.

“Just as we’re smarter than apes, they were probably smarter than us,” they speculate. More insightful and self-reflective than modern humans, with fantastic memories and a penchant for dreaming, the Boskops may have had “an internal mental life literally beyond anything we can imagine.”

The Extinct Human Species That Was Smarter Than Us

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 05:47:13 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: discovermagazine.com

The Extinct Human Species That Was Smarter Than Us

Big Brain: The Origins and Future of Human Intelligence by Gary Lynch and Richard Granger (Palgrave Macmillan, $26.95)

Tags: boskops, brain, human, evolution, intelligence