Niche selection

Derek Bickerton's Adam's Tongue* hits a heart-stopping high point on its second-last page.

The book, subtitled, "How humans made language, how language made humans" argues that niche selection is the reason why we have language and no other species does.

It's a long story, and one I can't explain here. But here's the para that put the whole book—and the concept of niche selection's impact on human evolution—into perspective:

"Why is it, do you suppose, that when a hunter-gatherer group is sucked into the vortex of 'civilisation,' so many of its members seem to undergo a kind of spiritual death, quickly falling victim to drugs, alcohol, irrational violence, or suicidal despair? ... for ten thousand years, ever since cities and government began, we have been selecting against the most independent, individualistic members of our species. Rebels, revolutionaries, heretics, criminals, martyrs—all those opposed to the current norms of society—have been systematically imprisoned, exiled, murdered or executed ... But the passive the compliant, the loyal, the obedient ... prospered like the green bay tree. Has this really had no effect on human nature?"

While this seems to imply a degree of idealism in what is hardly a perfect or idyllic lifestyle, Bickerton's point—that we've spent less time being civilised than we have evolving from uncivilised origins, and that we're still continuously adjusting to that world as a species, potentially with dire future consequences—is pretty arresting.

Especially for anyone who's ever felt they don't belong here. Which is all of us, right?

*Woo! Buy it for $12.95!