Play may be the primary means nature has found to develop our brains

(The Atlantic) Play’s the Thing:

This monumental book [The Evolution of Childhood: Relationships, Emotion, Mind] — more than 900 pages long, 30 years in the making, at once grand and intricate, breathtakingly inclusive and painstakingly particular — exhaustively explores the biological evolution of human behavior and specifically the behavior of children. Melvin Konner, an anthropologist and neuroscientist at Emory, weaves a compelling web of theories and studies across a remarkable array of disciplines…

Konner is especially interested in play, which is not unique to humans and, indeed, seems to have been present, like the mother-offspring bond, from the dawn of mammals. The smartest mammals are the most playful, so these traits have apparently evolved together. Play, Konner says, “combining as it does great energy expenditure and risk with apparent pointlessness, is a central paradox of evolutionary biology.” It seems to have multiple functions — exercise, learning, sharpening skills — and the positive emotions it invokes may be an adaptation that encourages us to try new things and learn with more flexibility. In fact, it may be the primary means nature has found to develop our brains.

(via Bobulate)