Every roundabout of this cycle made our ancestors’ brains bigger and bigger. As social groups got bigger (powered by improved gossip, altruism, and punishment), it created more pressure for bigger brains to keep track of all the social relationships. As more ideas accumulated across generations, it created more pressure for bigger brains to increase the storage capacity of ideas that could be maintained within a generation. As the usefulness of inner simulations increased due to more reliable sharing of thoughts through language, it created more pressure for bigger brains to render more
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