Any time you read something that claims, "We evolved Y because of X", just hit 'close tab', because it is crap.
EDIT: Come on, people, this article is clearly bullshit. Everyone knows that what really made people smart is cooking fires.
People that are otherwise intelligent always seem to inject pre-conceived notions into the idea of evolution. As if evolution is a "path" instead of mostly unrelated tweaks/optimizations. I suppose it's not as easily digestible to frame it in that context. The following just isn't as sexy:
- "At some point in history, immediately capable offspring stopped being an evolutionary advantage for humans."
- "Women who produced smaller babies less likely to die in childbirth, augmenting their ability to procreate."
- "Infants able to survive at a smaller birth-size more likely to pass on their genes."
https://colala.bcs.rochester.edu/papers/piantadosi2016extrao...