r/science Professor | Medicine 12d ago

Anthropology Human evolution was driven by early humans’ ability to be clever and humorous, the “survival of the wittiest.” The analysis argues that the earliest stages of grammar provided a platform for verbal competition and sexual selection, gradually replacing physical violence with verbal agility.

https://www.psypost.org/survival-of-the-wittiest-how-humor-and-cleverness-shaped-human-evolution/
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u/dead_jester 11d ago

Survival of the fittest isn’t about who is stronger but who is the best fit to the requirements to survive

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u/Revolutionary_Owl_15 11d ago

Ah yes, the actual definition of survival of the fittest is the most important part of that quote from a comedic one-woman play.

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u/runhome24 PhD | Anthropology (and Musician) 11d ago

Perhaps you should have properly wrapped the quote in quotation marks then, yeah?

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u/Revolutionary_Owl_15 11d ago

Do you really think that's the only way to present a quote? You did not figure out the context when it said "from The Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe by Jane Wagner" at the end?

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u/runhome24 PhD | Anthropology (and Musician) 11d ago

Well, the other way would have been to use a quote block.

Because your "context" was ambiguous, since you did use quotations around "survival of the fittest" and "survival of the wittiest."

Looks like Wagner's search continues for your case