I’ve been wondering about more reasons for our simplicity bias. A surprising one came to my mind: Evolution. Evolution is increasingly complex: from no life-forms to single cellular life, multicellular life, plants & trees, animals and then humans. This is the complexity bias. For the sake of balance & symmetry (my blogs), life-forms may need to be simple.
Actually, I’m puzzled by my own argument(s). In some ways, I perceive myself as simple but often I describe myself as a complex person. The balance of both gives a thoughtful person. I’ve learned to count until ten in order to control my instincts.
Several writers argue that humans are like hairless animals, for instance zoologist Desmond Morris in his 1967 book The Naked Ape, or his 1994 book and BBC series The Human Animal. Some writers seem adamant that humans are like walking apes.
The issue of complexity and/or simplicity is always in comparison with someone or something else (eg, apes). There are some tools to measure this, like the Theory of Mind. For animals, there’s a separate theory of mind (Wiki). Nevertheless, the more we know about animals, the more similarities come to light. The Guardian-2021:
“The results of the study found a convergence of certain personality traits, especially curiosity and sociability. [] These similarities were found despite dolphins having evolved in a completely different environment from primates, with the last common ancestor living about 95m years ago.”
Simplicity is (probably) about the degree of understanding as everything follows Why (my blogs).
Human simplicity may then explain why we are unable to answer many primary questions (ie, Why), and are still stuck with secondary questions (eg, How, What, When, Where, Who), like:
- How did life start?
- How did life migrate from single cellular to multicellular organisms?
- How old are viruses and where do they come from?
“If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.” An Albert Einstein quote.
Alive and Kicking (1985) by Simple Minds
artists, lyrics, video, Wiki-1, Wiki-2
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless stated otherwise.
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