Attributing Human Consciousness to the Theory of Evolution is false and invalid

Thanks Pro. Rebuttals: My opponent makes the case that much of the intelligent behaviour in our fellow mammals are largely It might be of interest to my opponent the attached videos, a few of many detailing the (limited, but present) problem-solving ability of our (second) closest species, the Chimpanzee.http://www.youtube.com...http://www.youtube.com...Clearly our cousin species are capable of at least some basic level of insight, and that’s all I need to show in order to demonstrate our current intellect is a reducible quality accessible by evolution. They are adaptable to tasks that they have never encountered, capable of trial and error and learning from mistakes. Much of this, as Pro rightly points out is purely instinctual, or lacking in any intellect, which is true. But do not forget that we humans are very much, or even mostly a product of our non-intellectual mental influences. No intellect governs our sexual attractions, what foods we find delicious, how to walk, how to open the door, or even how to juggle. They are largely the result of the brain recognising patterns and fitting the situation to the pattern – adjusting as we go along. Such are the reasons why tasks such as chess are easy for computers but walking is beyond a graduate-level AI project. Human Evolution: Another major factor involved in the development of intelligence (or the ‘quantum leap’) in humans is a mechanism for knowledge to be accumulated across generations. Humans are the only species to demonstrate this trait, where knowledge has a net positive (as opposed to zero) cumulative effect. What was the cause of this? Of course the answer is the development of physical recording and complex language. To get an accurate grasp of the what humans are we need to be able to compare humans who have not been brought up in a culture with language & recorded history and tradition. This of course is essentially non-existant in today’s society as humans form communities in even the longest isolated populations on earth, such as native americans. Another important factor along this line of reasoning are grandparents [1][2] and increased human longevity. Human lifespans gradually increased over the past 100,000 years of evolution and this increase greatly increased the number of grandparents within any population of humans. Grandparents, besides the obvious familial benefits also brought intellectual benefits. Knowledge that would normally be lost from generation to generation (as would happen in our fellow primates) would have been greatly buffered from the presence of senior members of society. Conclusion: The debate title “Attributing Human Consciousness to the Theory of Evolution is false and invalid” sets the BoP on Pro, and so far I have seen very little from the side of Pro to fulfil that burden. On the other hand I hope I have presented some positive reasons for believing that human consciousness, and all the things we associate with it are very much within reach of the products available within evolution, and perhaps to make us rethink what we regard as intelligence and human consciousness. A tougher resolution to defend would be ‘Is consciousness possible via evolution’, but my opponent already concedes this much, therefore I dare say my opponent’s position is one that is very hard to justify given the available evidence. References: [1] http://www.ted.com... [2] http://www.nature.com...