it's less about thought jumping than i thought in the end. thanks for the pointer! co-evolution of neocortex size, group size and language in humans

group size plus brain size equals predicted group size for humans of 147.8. i always enjoy the comma here.

modern humans "A group of 200, for instance, would have to devote 56.6% of its day to social grooming. For any organism that also has to earn a living in the real world, this would place a significant strain on its ability to balance its time budget.

but than modern humans have languages, a time saving tool for social grooming, dunbar goes on.

Thus, language introduces major savings by allowing an individual to do two different things at once. My suggestion, then, is that language evolved as a "cheap" form of social grooming, so enabling the ancestral humans to maintain the cohesion of the unusually large groups demanded by the particular conditions they faced at the time.

but maybe that's too optimistic and if you wanna be a recognized part of family, you maybe still need to invest that time for "grooming" ... wondering when this word will make it into manag*tabletalk.

back again at networking theories tipping point, linked, the wisdom of crowds, nexus, ...