If people evolved from apes, why are there still apes?
A better question is why have ape brains not evolved to protect themselves from the destruction that the human brained species causes on the world, which is a direct threat to apes? Evolution can’t see the forest, it can only see the trees?
Short answer: Because apes have found a different method of survival.
They won’t survive if humans destroy the world.
Some of these creatures lost some of their sense of sight and smell in order to develop cognitive brainpower.
Yes, these creatures became enlightened.
They were living in a new environment, and needed to figure out how to survive. Why didn't all creatures do this? Back in the forest, the sense of smell and sight were far too important for frivolous things like cognition.
Frivolous? We obsessively search the stars for signs of another enlightened species that is somewhere out there with this cognition. It is hardly treated as a frivolous attribute. This frivolous attribute has given humans a monopoly on the planet in a way that is a direct threat to apes, the doomsday clock is very much a factor for apes. Humans are responsible for the extinction of so many species. Why is evolution so blind when it comes to viewing the forest? It is only concerned with local environmental conditions?
A better angle to look at this situation might not involve the word frivolous but the word dangerous. Instead of saying apes did not need this “Frivolous” trait, what about the strange notion that Homo Sapiens DID need this “Dangerous” trait! Why would we need it? Surely many species were taken away from trees and/or evolved to see over grass yet it didn’t cause an evolved attribute that set a potential path for a doomsday clock.
Some of these creatures started to use simple tools in new, creative ways. Why didn't all creatures do this? They were not smart enough.
They were not smart enough to use tools because evolution didn’t allow their brains to grow. It was written in the cards that we would start using tools and dominate/harm the world after evolution allowed our brains to grow to a point of enlightenment. Why did evolution take this path with us? Why would not living around trees anymore result in becoming enlightened to the capacity of starting a doomsday clock on the other species? Again lots of species that were separated from trees throughout Earth’s history certainly didn’t result in self enlightenment world destruction capabilities.
Some of these creatures saw sparks when they struck stones together, and learned how to harness them to make fires for warmth and protection. Why didn't all creatures do this? They did not have the brainpower, tools, or available hands.
Right. The entire thing revolves around evolution giving us the brainpower. That’s it! We didn’t get where we are via a path that started due to us luckily seeing sparks one day, it was because evolution ONLY gave us the self awareness brainpower. Nothing coincidental had to open our eyes to start a course for how human history played out, it was written in the cards after evolution gave us larger enlightened brains.
Some of these creatures lost their hair and developed strong sweat glands. This allowed them to chase prey for a long time in the hot sun until the prey collapsed in exhaustion. Why didn't all creatures do this? They did not have fire and animal skins to keep them warm at nights, so they needed their hair.
Some of these creatures began to use fires to cook, making their food safer and easier to digest. Why didn't all creatures do this? They didn't know how to make fires.
You’re just giving example after example of what large brained animals can do that smaller brained animals can’t do. Who is arguing against this?
Some of these creatures spent many hours talking about things around the campfire while their food cooked. They developed complex brains to understand complex communications. Why didn't all creatures do this? Their brains were too small to understand language.
Yep.
Some of these creatures used their brain power to get more protein, so they could grow bigger brains, so they could get more protein, so they could get bigger brains, etc. Why didn't all creatures do this? They had been left out of this arms race long ago.
Lol huh? You’re saying that we grew our own brains now, because we like protein? What a reach!
Some of these creatures learned to gossip. Gossiping left everybody know who they could trust and who they could not trust. They learned to build complex relationships based on freely helping each other. Then they would talk about who responded with reciprocity and who did not. If they tried to cheat, somebody would tell on them. Why didn't all creatures gossip? Gossiping requires brainpower.
Some of these creatures developed complex math skills. For instance, they learned to calculate the tide schedule, so they would leave the safety of their caves only in that short period of time when the tide made it optimal to find shellfish on the beach. Why didn't all creatures do this? Math is not for dummys.
Some of these creatures dominated the available resources, leaving intermediates and other competitors to die out for lack of resources. Why didn't all the competitors do this? They would have if they could have.
This can all be simplified so easily, evolution gave our species large enlightened brains. That’s all. Nothing outside of that is a causal necessity for this or that. Kill us all off with a nuclear holocaust, let one species evolve a large enlightened brain again and it would all follow a similar course all over again. You’re overthinking this.
Meanwhile, the great apes stayed in the forest, remaining quite adept at a totally different lifestyle.
And that is why there are humans, and there are still apes.
Well it’s weird that evolution is so blind to the big picture, since humans are a threat to apes it’s interesting that an evolutionary brain growth hasn’t taken place for them as well.
