From Leslie White
Why do evolutionary biologists speak of “proto humans”? Evolution is goalless. It produces for-the-moment adaptations; it is blind to the future. It cannot produce a proto-anything.
To say that monkeys exhibit proto-human traits (23 July, p 17) such as a degree of empathy is a huge error. Monkeys were never on their way to becoming humans, since evolution never had us, or any other species, as a goal.
Tacoma, Washington
