< I meant that the Cro-Magnon cultural burst
occurred roughly between 40 and 30 thousand years ago. We don't know
the exact timing, but it's reasonable to assume it may have taken some
thousands of years (not necessarily 10000 yrs).>>
I guess that's where we differ. It is NOT reasonable to assume this, in my
view.
<<Exactly my point. The "Cro-Magnon explosion", for want of a better
term, was a cultural event, powered by human intelligence (in my
interpretation).>>
But you're missing my point. I'm not talking about the development of culture.
I'm talking about the actual appearance of modern man. I think you got hung up
on your Industrial Revolution analogy. The "explosion" I'm talking about is
sudden apperance on the scene of a creature that cannot be explained by any
natural means. As Goodman notes: "Modern man is an extraordinary phenomenon, a
complex system of distinctive physical and mental traits, a whole considerably
greater than the sum of its parts. Physcially and mentally he took a great
leap beyond his predecessors, a leap which cannot be explained by the demands
of the environment or random mutation."
Jim