A friend just sent me photos of his newborn. Every time I see a newborn I think "How did our species ever survive?" Human babies are sooo vulnerable, and utterly helpless, we can't do shit. A baby horse can run! A baby fish can swim. We can't swim, fly, run, walk, or even sit up. Hell, we can't even see very well.
If a martian observed newborns of the different animal species on earth it'd take a look at the human and say, "That one turns into one of those tree-hanging things, into a 'sloth,' am I right?" You cannot project an adult human being onto a baby. Size, limbs, head, noise-making ability--there is nothing to suggest that that baby is going to turn into a member of the DOMINANT species on the planet, fully capable of ambulating, of the finest manipulation of his environment with those tiny, balled hands, of the most subtle and complex communication, of singing with that noise box, not just squawking, "for we are vertebrates tipped at the head with a divine flame." You can't see that flame in a newborn, though.
If a martian observed newborns of the different animal species on earth it'd take a look at the human and say, "That one turns into one of those tree-hanging things, into a 'sloth,' am I right?" You cannot project an adult human being onto a baby. Size, limbs, head, noise-making ability--there is nothing to suggest that that baby is going to turn into a member of the DOMINANT species on the planet, fully capable of ambulating, of the finest manipulation of his environment with those tiny, balled hands, of the most subtle and complex communication, of singing with that noise box, not just squawking, "for we are vertebrates tipped at the head with a divine flame." You can't see that flame in a newborn, though.
