The End of Learning
Learning is the fundamental process of life. For example, a dog learns to sit when trained. At the same time, a man learns how to train dogs. Dogs learn to be good pets over the course of a lifetime, but that’s on the tail end of a much longer process by which species of dogs learned the traits that would make them more fit for domestication.
Neoteny is the trait whereby some animals, like beavers, are born very immature. The evolutionary advantage that comes with this is newborn animals are given the opportunity to be taught by their mothers. This is essential for beavers, since they’re nature’s craftsmen. For mankind, our neoteny in a sense lasts our whole lives. Because our way of life is so well insulated from primitive nature, we’re able to keep learning from each other all our lives.
Humans and animals learn over the course of their lives, but before that, they learned to learn...