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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

#91

Post by fakedang »

nexuist wrote: post #75
alun wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Loved that scene. Reminds me of all the "autobiography" stories we had to write for various items such as cars, horses, computers and pens, back in school.

Re: Humans began to rapidly accumulate technological knowledge 600k years ago

#92

Post by pcrh »

aurareturn wrote: post #22
mkl wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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... .

There are also humans who can’t conjure up an image in their head. Mozilla cofounder wrote a fairly famous piece about his own experience. https://www.theverge.com/2016/4/25/11501230/blake-ross-cant-... 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 and are just a bunch of chemicals controlling our behavior. It…

With regards to consciousness per se being real, that question was resolved with Cogito, ergo sum.

Re: Humans began to rapidly accumulate technological knowledge 600k years ago

#93

Post by MeImCounting »

mistermann wrote: post #56
MeImCounting wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thinking isnt even a path to "free will". Thinking is pretty clearly determined by exterior stimulus just like feeling is.

Where does "clearly" originate, and what does it refer to? Is "just" a synonym for "exactly" in this context?

"Clearly" refers to the obviousness or self-evidence of the statement. In this context, "just" means "similarly" or "in the same way," or ig "exactly" if you like.

"Clearly" because exterior stimuli clearly influence both thinking and feeling, a concept supported by common experience and scientific understanding of human cognition and emotions.

Re: Humans began to rapidly accumulate technological knowledge 600k years ago

#94

Post by brazzy »

alun wrote: post #72
johnnylambada wrote: post #27

It’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

There's also Thomas Thwaites' "building a toaster... from scratch" project that goes into the details of how even an extremely simple appliance involves materials and processes that are effectively impossible for a single person to replicate (spoiler: he has to give up and "cheat" on some things).

Re: Humans began to rapidly accumulate technological knowledge 600k years ago

#95

Post by eru »

sydbarrett74 wrote: post #68
cpncrunch wrote: post #60

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 ?

I would be fairly happy with that definition, but I wouldn't rely on it out-of-context.

(I would definitely call Neanderthals "human" in almost any context.)

Re: Humans began to rapidly accumulate technological knowledge 600k years ago

#96

Post by AlotOfReading »

cpncrunch wrote: post #60

News article says humans, but earliest human (homo sapiens) was around 300kya. The actual paper uses the word hominids rather than humans.

The word human is commonly used for both modern humans and members of the entire genus Homo. Hominids is a more general superset that isn't strictly correct here. The term hominin is more appropriate in this context and what they actually use in the abstract.

In my opinion though, "human" is the better word here for conveying the right mix of informality without implying the specific semantics of "Hominini sans Pan".

Re: Humans began to rapidly accumulate technological knowledge 600k years ago

#97

Post by kbrkbr »

raincom wrote: post #79
mkl wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Research indicates that reality is more complex and messy than that.

https://www.livescience.com/does-everyone-have-inner-monolog...

It seems more likely that a theory that bases being an intentional agent on the notion of an inner monologue is not the best model for what's happening.

Re: Humans began to rapidly accumulate technological knowledge 600k years ago

#98

Post by edflsafoiewq »

Roadeo wrote: post #85
gavindean90 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But like China had the printing press and gun powder and plenty of other things that went on to be repurposed in the Renaissance. I feel like the narrative of the modern technological exponential growth curve kicking off with the Renaissance is rather Eurocentric and misses that the left end of that graph is likely so shallow as to be hard to differentiate the “before” and the “after”.

Slightly unrelated, but James Burke explains this really well in Connections[1] S01E03. Basically he says one of the reasons China didn't experience the rapid growth Europe went through during the Renaissance was because Chinese society during those times had a strict hierarchy. You weren't allowed to rise through the ranks with your inventions or technologies, no matter how revolutionary they were. "No incentive, no…

Was the Renaissance driven by concerns of social mobility? Galileo's telescope was not calculated to improve his rank in society.

Re: Humans began to rapidly accumulate technological knowledge 600k years ago

#99

Post by Anotheroneagain »

More recent history seems to paint another picture - knowledge is quickly gained as cognitive ability increases, and is even more rapidly lost once it diminishes.

Think of not only the replication crisis in science, but also the despair to retain "tacit knowledge" the failure of which often results in outright abandonment and outsourcing to somewhere else.

The technology to land on the Moon seems to be effectively lost. The supersonic airliner is for some reason not available either.

Same happened in Rome, and Rome itself together with Greece rediscovered civilization from a much darker age before them.

In light of that, the idea that any real knowledge could be retained for that long is preposterous.

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