[CodeToad]

They assume “training” made the brains and not that the brains provided the ability for the skills.

[hellbender]

Maybe they didn't express it optimally, but the point could be that once technology first appeared, people who happened to have the innate mental talents for "engineering," geometrical visualization, and discipline had an advantage. In other words, nerds started to become respectable.

I think that mental evolution like this continued even through recent centuries, when the ability to plan and make things like water mills, wagons, guns, etc. gave someone an edge over peasants. The process is reversed when socialism rewards the indolent and stupid.

[Tao Yin]

Selective breeding is more likely. Those in a tribe with the desired traits were more likely to breed. Those tribes with the most advanced were more likely to thrive.

Check out the history for the domestication of foxes. In 40 generations, wild foxes were transformed into tame, dog-like, creatures.

The article is poorly written. Training did not change their brain or their DNA; it was selective breeding over a long period of time.

[Elendur]

They assume “training” made the brains and not that the brains provided the ability for the skills.
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yep. just like they assume boys become boys, only because they play with trucks, not dolls...

(btw, my compliments to your tag line!!!)

[PapaBear3625]

They assume “training” made the brains and not that the brains provided the ability for the skills.

More accurately, having the ability to construct tools gave the toolmaker a big survival advantage over non-toolmakers, resulting in selection for toolmaking ability. The humans who couldn't master the skills died out and were replaced.

[dangerdoc]

Men with the best blades got all the dates.

Maybe a good blade was the equivalent to a sports car?

[worst-case scenario]

That’s probably because all the new evidence gathered in the past decade shows that the brain itself changes physically in response to training. It’s much more plastic than believed for most of the 20th Century. The brain has the innate ability to develop the skills, but it must be trained in order for those skills to emerge.