Re: Evolution And Complexity

[Augusto Haro <augustoharo@gmail.com>]

Anyway, if one is to argue about classifying because of complexity,
one should not use the term of "potential to make some complex thing".
Who does not have potential? As our capabilities of predicting future
are low, regarding human future (which may well be being hidden by
those which invent what we will consume in the future), I think that
we cannot say that because some taxon has a larger or more complex
brain it will generate smarter life forms. We should treat complexity
(if we could measure it at all) in actual, nor potential terms of
things that can be gained, because most living beings may conceivably
have such a potential.

Correct me if I am wrong, but we currently think that terrestrial
carnivores have relatively larger brains than land artiodactyls. Yet,
the marine branch of the former seems to have a relatively smaller
brain compared with the marine derivatives of the latter (notably
also, although not related to the point, as the Carnivora largely
predate on the Artiodactyla, in the sea the relationship would be
reversed, at least for the orca, which can predate almost any pinniped
it can meet).