News article says humans, but earliest human (homo sapiens) was around 300kya. The actual paper uses the word hominids rather than humans.
Can we all agree that 'human' should be defined as all members of the genus Homo ?
No
Humans began to rapidly accumulate technological knowledge 600k years ago
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Re: Humans began to rapidly accumulate technological knowledge 600k years ago
#72It’s fascinating to think about the number of PUs (procedural units) it takes to make a modern tool. Something as simple as a modern hammer must number in the thousands and a mobile phone in the millions or billions.
You might find the essay "I, Pencil" by Leonard Read interesting. It's told from the point of view of a pencil who talks about the complexity of his own creation and all of the components involved in the process
Re: Humans began to rapidly accumulate technological knowledge 600k years ago
#73And to think it culminates in tech companies emitting more CO2 than Belgium to make celebrity deepfakes and tell us to put glue on pizza. Wow.
Re: Humans began to rapidly accumulate technological knowledge 600k years ago
#74Just imagine where we'll be 600k from now.
Unrecognizable as a species.
Re: Humans began to rapidly accumulate technological knowledge 600k years ago
#75It’s fascinating to think about the number of PUs (procedural units) it takes to make a modern tool. Something as simple as a modern hammer must number in the thousands and a mobile phone in the millions or billions.
You might find the essay "I, Pencil" by Leonard Read interesting. It's told from the point of view of a pencil who talks about the complexity of his own creation and all of the components involved in the process
That essay also loosely inspired the opening scene of Lord of War, which showcases the journey of a bullet from an underground mine to an Eastern European factory all the way into the head of an African child soldier.
Re: Humans began to rapidly accumulate technological knowledge 600k years ago
#76Just imagine where we'll be 600k from now.
Long gone, having been killed by AI research probably.
Re: Humans began to rapidly accumulate technological knowledge 600k years ago
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can we all agree that 'human' should be defined as all members of the genus Homo ?
No
Archaic human?
Re: Humans began to rapidly accumulate technological knowledge 600k years ago
#78You have to think that there were breakthroughs in communication technology — not just language in general but possibly also one individual who happened to be good at explaining things, either before or after language, who both taught more people, but also taught them how to teach — that led to step changes in technology.
It all starts with imitation of some sufficient fidelity and generality that seeds a runaway evolutionary process. Language evolved to improve the fidelity of imitation much like how genes evolved pathways to minimize random mutations during copying. Once imitation gets good enough (general and accurate) were capable of spreading behaviors (phenotypes) without having to wait for folks to be born and grow up.
That's culture, and it's known to exist among animals in a limited way.
We don't really know what the upper bound for non humans is, because we don't know exactly what's being communicated by, for example, whale song.
Re: Humans began to rapidly accumulate technological knowledge 600k years ago
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
Theory: there are no humans without language. Consider: what language do you think in?
Quite a lot of humans don't think in language, or do only some of the time, see e.g. https://www.iflscience.com/people-with-no-internal-monologue... , https://www.livescience.com/does-everyone-have-inner-monolog... , https://www.bustle.com/wellness/does-everyone-have-an-intern... .
"inner monologue" exists whenever people have hopes, dreams, plans, etc--thats what humans being intentional agents mean. Sure, there is a spectrum: those whose monologue is so active during the wakeful time to those whose daily brief monologue is about what to say in tomorrow's scrum standup.
Re: Humans began to rapidly accumulate technological knowledge 600k years ago
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
>If there are people who can’t picture and people who don’t have an inner dialogue, I think it lends more credence to the idea that we don’t have free will That seems like a bizarre leap. What's the connection?
Because it implies that we only behave based on how we feel, not how we think. The thinking part is an illusion. Therefore, our “consciousness” has no effect on how we behave. I’m not willing to die on this hill by the way so if someone else comes along and argues otherwise, I’m open to other ideas.
Just because you're reliant on words to think doesn't mean others are.
Language certainly helps shape thoughts, even to the extent that, certainly for older kids and adults, different languages influence and constrain thought in different ways.
But consider dreams. These are adjacent to thoughts, and don't require language. Some dreamers are even able to express will not only on their actions, but over the dream itself. And if proof were needed of a conscious agent, it's there even in an apparently unconscious being.