Eli5-Why are humans so smart in comparison to other mammals but human babies are so helpless?

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For example even puppies will understand to crawl over and latch to mother, primates come out clinging to mother, horses and goats can walk, yet babies have to be taken care of for so long and are helpless!

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Anonymous 0 Comments

One is actually the cause of the other.

We’ve evolved to be smarter because the smarter Apes were better able to survive.

But one of the big trade offs for that is that we have such large heads even as babies that we have to be born effectively pre-mature compared to other animals to get through the birth canal.

So having helpless babies is a side effect of being so smart, but being smart is what helps us raise helpless babies.

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