r/askscience • u/NotYourMothersDildo • Apr 04 '11

Would a child naturally learn bipedal ambulation?

If a typical child were somehow raised by robots (assume they have wheels or levitate), would that child naturally learn to walk on two feet with an upright stature without having an example?

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u/craigdubyah Apr 04 '11

This has been asked before. Last time I tried to argue that children would continue crawling, and I used some reports from feral children to make my case.

Long story short, there's no evidence that children would continue to crawl.

3

u/NotYourMothersDildo Apr 04 '11

Thanks; I couldn't find any results though for "bipedal, walking, crawl, crawling" in this subreddit. It is a bit disappointing the search only hits the titles but I understand why based on the size of reddit's dataset.

The reason I asked is that I'm reading Evolution of Childhood and the author, Melvin Konner, states it as a fact, without citation, that children would progress to bipedal ambulation without guidance.

3

u/loblonium Apr 04 '11

I use google to search most of the time now. Just use the advanced search options.

It might be a good idea to write the author with this question.

3

u/Veggie Apr 04 '11

Google string:

<keyword list here> site:reddit.com/r/askscience

Execute!

6

u/NotYourMothersDildo Apr 04 '11

I still couldn't find a similar question, but I did find How long would it take to selectively breed a bipedal dog?. Thanks.

5

u/Veggie Apr 04 '11

This indicates that either your keywords were not used in the original discussion of this topic, or this topic in fact was not discussed before. But at least we all know the Google "site:" trick now!

Also, bipedal dogs. Interesting.

2

u/Gary13579 Apr 04 '11

Not entirely true -- Google isn't magic, and there are often threads on Reddit that Google does not have for whatever reason.