Science tells us that the superiority of Homo Sapiens (the primate species to which we all belong), over other creatures is all down to the specific biology of the ‘opposable thumb’ in our hands, which allowed us to make tools, which in turn, made our brains grow bigger than all other animals.
This bio-mechanical engineering wonder of nature that gives us the dexterity to perform such diverse activities from the brawny chopping wood logs with a sharp and heavy axe to the delicate matter of threading a needle simply because we have a short, stumpy digit that can face each and every one of the other four digits or all of them at once. Over the centuries, we have attempted and gradually managed to harness nature, cultivate land and domesticate a variety of animals for our benefit, and theirs.
The expression Homo Sapiens is Latin meaning “Wise Man”, and this is where my interest lies. According to the Oxford English Dictionary wise means ‘showing experience, knowledge and good judgment’, while Merriam Webster Dictionary defines the word as ‘exercising or showing sound judgment’. Did you spot the common word there? Of course, you did because you are wise (sorry, I couldn’t resist the sarcasm). JUDGMENT is the key word here.
Judgment is not a binary trait where one person has it while another person doesn’t. Rather, it is a spectrum of ability where people, based on life experience, training, and knowledge, have a tendency to consider a variety of factors and come up with the right assessment of the situation in hand and then exercise or show sound judgment. Clearly, the more experienced and knowledgeable you are, the more likely your judgment to be sound or good. This is why young children are less adept at the sound judgment thing because they still lack the requisite knowledge and experience.
But the above is not entirely true in the real world. On the spectrum of proficiency in sound judgment, there are people who are mature in age with many years-experience and exposure who have a propensity to assess situations and still make poor judgment. You only need to see how many car accidents take place all over the world on daily basis. Or the hundreds of thousands of prisoners who commit crimes, thinking they would get away with it but don’t. Look at how many divorces, failed businesses, lost jobs, money lost on gambling, and so on.
The other point to make about wisdom is that it is not a constant and permanent state of being. Wise people have proved to be foolish on occasions and foolish people stumbled across wise courses of action. Once, I was driving fast late at night on the motorway in England and noticed a police car ahead in the distance. I considered the situation and naturally slowed down to within the legal speed limit. I kept this up for about five minutes and re-considered the matter again and decided (no idea why), to overtake the police car but to do so, would have meant slightly exceeding the speed limit. The police car seemed to pick up speed before I could overtake so, I re-considered again and put my foot down a little further. This went on for a while with gradual increase of speed until I finally managed to overtake them, by which time, I was way over the legal speed limit. As I completed my smooth but dumb overtaking manoeuvre, the flashing lights went on and I was instructed to stop. Thereafter ensued a very awkward 15 minutes of exchange with the self-satisfied police officer who demanded to know what my reasons were for exceeding the speed limit.
What happens to our mental opposable thumb? We start the day by reminding our children not to accept sweets from strangers then go out, consider the matter in hand and decide to jump red traffic lights, get caught and then claim we have a medical emergency that doesn’t exist; cover an innocuous mistake by lying about it to cover it up; bluff our resignation only to have it accepted; put all our chips on the one number then lose; and so on.
How come children, without life knowledge and experience occasionally manage to display wisdom that belies their tender years? How often have you heard a relative or friend say “my little Suzie is so beyond her age; she said to me this morning…”. Legend has it that the “The Emperor has no clothes” was uttered by a child amongst dozens of adults who, deliberately or otherwise, failed to spot the ridiculous sight of the naked emperor before them.
As an aside to the above, here is an interesting thought. In the early years of the 21st Century, I am intrigued by the sudden exponential increase in use of our thumbs for something relatively new, texting. Texting is best performed by holding your smart phone in the palm of both hands while both thumbs are brought into action to speed type lengthy and often complex messages to family and friends. Sadly, I and people of my generation are less adept at this skill and whenever I try to type with my thumbs, I drop my phone. However, my Millennial children and the Z-Generation after them are unbelievably proficient at it.
I wonder whether the Darwinian Natural Selection Theory will soon begin to favour those with dextrous and strong thumbs and in a few hundred years we will have pre-dominance of people with incredibly large and manoeuvrable thumbs and by extension, enhanced brain power. I cannot judge.
