Up from Dragons
Encyclopedia
Up from Dragons: The Evolution of Human Intelligence is a 2002 book on human evolution
, the human brain
, and the origins of human cognition
by John Skoyles
and Dorion Sagan
. The book considers how the brain and genes evolved into their present condition over the course of thousands and millions of years. It was published by McGraw Hill.
The book argues that the earlier ape
brain had evolved “mindmakers” and that the human mind
arose when these were “rewired” by symbols. This new “mindware” was created by the prefrontal cortex
in combination with neural plasticity. This “Symbolic capacity is the ‘missing link’ that changed the ape brain into a human and made mindware possible, allowing symbols to structure the brain”. p. 277 Mindware itself has been evolving
for the last 120,000 years and as a result kept reshaping human consciousness
, thought
and culture. Its last chapter speculates upon the future of human cognition
.
The title relates to Carl Sagan
(co-author Dorion Sagan's father) and his 1977 book Dragons of Eden for which this book provides a 25th-anniversary reappraisal.
, neuroscience
, social neuroscience
and the humanities
.
environments humans create. Components of a gifted environment include “a rich variety of representations”, a “stimulating learning environment”, and “’empowering environments’—ones which foster specific paths of development, an opportunity sometimes limited to brief windows of developmental time” It is proposed that such gifted environments are created by adult prefrontal cortex. The potential to create gifted environments predates humans and exists in chimpanzees. But they are limited because as adults chimpanzees lack time, cooperate only weakly and are under constant stress. It was the highly cooperative sociability of humans that allowed gifted environments to arise that could fully support cognitive development.
concerns the paradox that the best way for something to occur is for it to already to be established. This problem has been identified in computer
and cognitive science
as an important obstacle: computers need to load programs to start but this is best done when they have already loaded the program for doing this; reading
is easier to acquire once a person can already read. Cognitive development can be interpreted as the process by which cognitive systems sidestep and work around bootstrapping problems that would otherwise obstruct cognitive growth. The bootstrapping problem is proposed to explain why human cultural and technological developments often take so long to historically develop and then accelerate: the best circumstances for such innovations to flourish often arise only when they already exist.
and writing
are such new functions that rewire the functions of visual
, speech
and other cortical areas by letters
and logogram stand-ins.
work by creating chemical bonds by bringing existing substances into reaction
using intermediaries, and by temporal and spatial conjunction. The prefrontal cortex works similarly upon information processing
happening elsewhere in the brain through creating working memory
space. This space allows novel intermediary forms of association to be created and held together between different information processing systems in the brain. This process is essential to the formation of symbols and symbol based cognition.
in humans, most of the human cerebral cortex
lacks tightly evolved functions and so is open to acquire nonevolved skills. Even highly evolved cortical areas such as the primary visual and auditory cortices
can to a surprising degree take on new functions. Semantics
can develop in the visual cortex of those born blind
, and vision
can develop in the auditory cortex in experimental animals when retinal
input is redirected into it. The association areas of the cerebral cortex lack the input constraints of primary areas. As a result they are even more open to acquire novel cognitive capabilities.
has proposed that memories are organized by headed records. The function of the hippocampus is suggested to be providing such headers for memory. They also underlie the human capacity to experience in spite of superficial changes the continuity of self, other and place.
is argued to be a protective attentive envelope (see below) that temporary acts to protect injured or easily injured parts of the body from actions controlled by the brain.
systems that stop pilots acting in a manner that might harm the aircraft but which allow them to make quick but safe actions. The anterior cingulate cortex
is argued to act as a “hidden observer” over what we do “attention-to-action” and it provides a similar function for humans. These envelopes underlie the experience of self-consciousness, anxiety
and pain.
tokens or insignia by which people who were bonded could spot each other (the word comes from the Greek
“symballein” which means “to throw together”). The problem of social primates is to create bonds
that are flexible yet also allow prolonged separation. Limbic symbolons are symbols that enable emotional attachments established in other apes by smell, grooming and to some degree sight, to cope with physical separation by an internal (mental name) or external (wedding ring) stand-in that is always cognitively present. Limbic symbols are usually publicly defined (another advantage) and acquired in rituals. “Early hominid environments were dangerous and food resources patchy and irregular, which placed a premium on individuals able to exploit kin relations and extend social links beyond the immediate present. Such pressures promoted symbolism, originally to stand for kin recognition and social relationships, enabling these to be maintained over time and space even when the relevant individuals were absent. These developments in turn lead to more complex social networks and the cognitive abilities to exploit these.”
, touch, sound or vision. Nonimmediate depends upon carrying the experience of the group within the head. Such sociability is already present in apes and is due to processes called mindmakers. But due to the modification of these mindmakers with symbolons, sociability in groups has become highly developed in humans. The combination of symbols and mindmakers created social mindware.
” differs from that of specified engineering types of bridges (suspension
, cantilever
, arch
and so on). In the latter, what transmits is understood in terms of the specific engineering processes that support that transmission rather than the general idea of transmission. The use of a wedding ring is a meme
when viewed from the perspective of transmitted culture, but it is mindware when viewed from the neurological changes it makes to the attachment processes in the brain that sustain the emotional bond of marriage. The acquisition of social mindware is closely linked with rituals. In mindware “the human ape found a brain programming language to bond across time and place—symbolic culture. This was to change forever what it meant to be a brain. Now the human mind could live in thousands of varieties of life. …with their mindware humans set themselves apart from other animals and the rest of nature”.
relates to its capacity to act through it and so interact with the autonomous physical world. The human brain also acts within the autonomous world of social relationships
. This social embodiment gives rise to a sense of social “me” . Consciousness is the embodied attention of the brain to its causality in such social relationships and the physical world.
. In this members of a group regularly separate into small subgroups (fission) but at the same time still belong to the same group (fusion). Human are unique in the robust ability of their bonds to survive prolonged physical separation. This is due to symbols. Another factor is that these bonds can be publicly defined and so create symbolic culture. This makes humans a superfission-fusion ape.
that will follow the present one will be the Brain Age. In this neuroscience
will replace the ancient myths that at present shape how people understand themselves. Further, braintech (see below) will arise that enables humans to reshape the competences of their brain. This Era will continue the reshaping of our species that has happened since its origins 120,000 years ago. Braintech represents the last frontier faced by the human species.
) or symbols based upon ancient myth to identify their group membership
. Brains offer a firmer foundation for our identity since they underlie the core of who we are in our shared “vulnerability, richness, history, and giftedness”. Understanding this is our true nature. It follows that “Each of our brains should be guaranteed the right to grow unhandicapped and supplied with the best possible nurture and support”, and “a gifted environment sensitive to its uniqueness”.
is proposed to be akin to that of computers as in the 1960s. Like such past computers such technology will spiral down in price and convenience so that this braintech (like computers today) will become an essential part of everyday human life.
Human evolution
Human evolution refers to the evolutionary history of the genus Homo, including the emergence of Homo sapiens as a distinct species and as a unique category of hominids and mammals...
, the human brain
Human brain
The human brain has the same general structure as the brains of other mammals, but is over three times larger than the brain of a typical mammal with an equivalent body size. Estimates for the number of neurons in the human brain range from 80 to 120 billion...
, and the origins of human cognition
Behavioral modernity
Behavioral modernity is a term used in anthropology, archeology and sociology to refer to a set of traits that distinguish present day humans and their recent ancestors from both living primates and other extinct hominid lineages. It is the point at which Homo sapiens began to demonstrate a...
by John Skoyles
John Skoyles (scientist)
John Skoyles is a dyslexic neuroscientist and evolutionary psychologist. He initially studied philosophy of science at the London School of Economics and then did MRC funded research upon neuroscience and dyslexia at University College London....
and Dorion Sagan
Dorion Sagan
Dorion Sagan is an American science writer, essayist, and theorist. He has written and co-authored many books on culture, evolution, and the history and philosophy of science, most recently "The Sciences of Avatar: from Anthropology to Xenology" and "Death and Sex," which won first place at the...
. The book considers how the brain and genes evolved into their present condition over the course of thousands and millions of years. It was published by McGraw Hill.
The book argues that the earlier ape
Ape
Apes are Old World anthropoid mammals, more specifically a clade of tailless catarrhine primates, belonging to the biological superfamily Hominoidea. The apes are native to Africa and South-east Asia, although in relatively recent times humans have spread all over the world...
brain had evolved “mindmakers” and that the human mind
Mind
The concept of mind is understood in many different ways by many different traditions, ranging from panpsychism and animism to traditional and organized religious views, as well as secular and materialist philosophies. Most agree that minds are constituted by conscious experience and intelligent...
arose when these were “rewired” by symbols. This new “mindware” was created by the prefrontal cortex
Prefrontal cortex
The prefrontal cortex is the anterior part of the frontal lobes of the brain, lying in front of the motor and premotor areas.This brain region has been implicated in planning complex cognitive behaviors, personality expression, decision making and moderating correct social behavior...
in combination with neural plasticity. This “Symbolic capacity is the ‘missing link’ that changed the ape brain into a human and made mindware possible, allowing symbols to structure the brain”. p. 277 Mindware itself has been evolving
Sociocultural evolution
Sociocultural evolution is an umbrella term for theories of cultural evolution and social evolution, describing how cultures and societies have changed over time...
for the last 120,000 years and as a result kept reshaping human consciousness
Consciousness
Consciousness is a term that refers to the relationship between the mind and the world with which it interacts. It has been defined as: subjectivity, awareness, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood, and the executive control system of the mind...
, thought
Thought
"Thought" generally refers to any mental or intellectual activity involving an individual's subjective consciousness. It can refer either to the act of thinking or the resulting ideas or arrangements of ideas. Similar concepts include cognition, sentience, consciousness, and imagination...
and culture. Its last chapter speculates upon the future of human cognition
Futurology
Futures studies is the study of postulating possible, probable, and preferable futures and the worldviews and myths that underlie them. There is a debate as to whether this discipline is an art or science. In general, it can be considered as a branch under the more general scope of the field of...
.
The title relates to Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan
Carl Edward Sagan was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularizer and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences. He published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books...
(co-author Dorion Sagan's father) and his 1977 book Dragons of Eden for which this book provides a 25th-anniversary reappraisal.
Chapters
- Cosmic Mirror: The questions of whoMeaning of lifeThe meaning of life constitutes a philosophical question concerning the purpose and significance of life or existence in general. This concept can be expressed through a variety of related questions, such as "Why are we here?", "What is life all about?", and "What is the meaning of it all?" It has...
and whatHuman natureHuman nature refers to the distinguishing characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting, that humans tend to have naturally....
humans are explored in terms of the history of the universeCosmologyCosmology is the discipline that deals with the nature of the Universe as a whole. Cosmologists seek to understand the origin, evolution, structure, and ultimate fate of the Universe at large, as well as the natural laws that keep it in order...
, lifeEvolutionary history of lifeThe evolutionary history of life on Earth traces the processes by which living and fossil organisms have evolved since life on Earth first originated until the present day. Earth formed about 4.5 Ga and life appeared on its surface within one billion years...
and humankindHistory of the worldThe history of the world or human history is the history of humanity from the earliest times to the present, in all places on Earth, beginning with the Paleolithic Era. It excludes non-human natural history and geological history, except insofar as the natural world substantially affects human lives...
as when looking in a mirror. - Up from Dragons: Modern human genesGênesGênes is the name of a département of the First French Empire in present Italy, named after the city of Genoa. It was formed in 1805, when Napoleon Bonaparte occupied the Republic of Genoa. Its capital was Genoa, and it was divided in the arrondissements of Genoa, Bobbio, Novi Ligure, Tortona and...
arose when humans evolved as hunter-gatherers. But in the last 120,000 years humans have changedBehavioral modernityBehavioral modernity is a term used in anthropology, archeology and sociology to refer to a set of traits that distinguish present day humans and their recent ancestors from both living primates and other extinct hominid lineages. It is the point at which Homo sapiens began to demonstrate a...
from hunter-gatherers to hi-tech citizens. The book seeks to answer why and how. - Neurons Unlimited: The brain is neurally plastic (NP) – evolutionEvolutionEvolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
left open the function of human neurons. The capacity of its neurons to engage in imaginationImaginationImagination, also called the faculty of imagining, is the ability of forming mental images, sensations and concepts, in a moment when they are not perceived through sight, hearing or other senses...
extends its potential to think and feel. - Superbrain: The prefrontal cortex (PC) is the brain's "conductorConductingConducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
". It directs using inner representations as prompts which organize the brain's "orchestra" of neural “talents”. - Mind-Engine: Cognition depends upon brain waves that bindNeural bindingAccording to the neural binding hypothesis, neurons within neuronal assemblies fire in synchrony to link different features of neuronal representations together. These features can include, shape, motion, color, depth, and other aspects of perception. Neural oscillations have been suggested as the...
through synchronizationBrainwave synchronizationBrainwave entrainment or "brainwave synchronization," is any practice that aims to cause brainwave frequencies to fall into step with a periodic stimulus having a frequency corresponding to the intended brain-state , usually attempted with the use of specialized software...
of diverse brain areasBrodmann areaA Brodmann area is a region of the cerebral cortex defined based on its cytoarchitectonics, or structure and organization of cells.-History:...
into mental unity. The prefrontal cortex controls this unification of the brain. - Neural Revolution: The large sized human brainBrain sizeBrain size is one aspect of animal anatomy and evolution. Both overall brain size and the size of substructures have been analysed, and the question of links between size and functioning - particularly intelligence - has often proved controversial...
has extensive "blank" cortex available for processing nonevolved skills. But acquiring such skills requires that the brain’s neural networksNeural NetworksNeural Networks is the official journal of the three oldest societies dedicated to research in neural networks: International Neural Network Society, European Neural Network Society and Japanese Neural Network Society, published by Elsevier...
get “trained”—which the prefrontal cortex does by acting as a “cortical catalyst”. - Machiavellian Neurons: Humans like other apes live in social groups that split and reformFission-fusion societyIn primatology, a fission-fusion society is one in which the social group, e.g. bonobo collectives of 100-strong, sleep in one locality together, but forage in small groups going off in different directions during the day. This form of social organization occurs in several other species of...
. Humans are novel in their ability to decouple these social and personal bondsAttachment theoryAttachment theory describes the dynamics of long-term relationships between humans. Its most important tenet is that an infant needs to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for social and emotional development to occur normally. Attachment theory is an interdisciplinary study...
from direct sensory contact. The human brain does this by carrying around its social group as an "inner troop within our heads". - The Troop within Our Heads: Humans think they are freeFree will"To make my own decisions whether I am successful or not due to uncontrollable forces" -Troy MorrisonA pragmatic definition of free willFree will is the ability of agents to make choices free from certain kinds of constraints. The existence of free will and its exact nature and definition have long...
-- but this troop within their heads rules human thoughts, feelings and actions. Due to it humans feel guiltGuiltGuilt is the state of being responsible for the commission of an offense. It is also a cognitive or an emotional experience that occurs when a person realizes or believes—accurately or not—that he or she has violated a moral standard, and bears significant responsibility for that...
, shameShameShame is, variously, an affect, emotion, cognition, state, or condition. The roots of the word shame are thought to derive from an older word meaning to cover; as such, covering oneself, literally or figuratively, is a natural expression of shame....
, pridePridePride is an inwardly directed emotion that carries two common meanings. With a negative connotation, pride refers to an inflated sense of one's personal status or accomplishments, often used synonymously with hubris...
and self-consciousnessSelf-consciousnessSelf-consciousness is an acute sense of self-awareness. It is a preoccupation with oneself, as opposed to the philosophical state of self-awareness, which is the awareness that one exists as an individual being; although some writers use both terms interchangeably or synonymously...
. - Our Living Concern: Underlying human experience are mindmakers. One such mindmaker is the anterior cingulate as it creates attention to what is done. It underlies not only social consciousnessSocial consciousnessSocial consciousness is consciousness shared within a society. It can also be defined as social awareness; to be aware of the problems that different societies and communities face on a day-to-day basis; to be conscious of the difficulties and hardships of society.- Theory :Many studies have been...
, but painPainPain is an unpleasant sensation often caused by intense or damaging stimuli such as stubbing a toe, burning a finger, putting iodine on a cut, and bumping the "funny bone."...
, and a sense of reality. - Doing the Right Thing: Our sense of right and wrongMoralityMorality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
arises from our origins as social apes. Morality is a byproduct of the troop within our heads that is created by the orbitofrontal cortexOrbitofrontal cortexThe orbitofrontal cortex is a prefrontal cortex region in the frontal lobes in the brain which is involved in the cognitive processing of decision-making...
mindmaker. This limits human freedom by preventing psychopathic-like actions. - Where Memories are Made: The human sense of identityIdentity (social science)Identity is a term used to describe a person's conception and expression of their individuality or group affiliations . The term is used more specifically in psychology and sociology, and is given a great deal of attention in social psychology...
arises from the need of the brain to experience a past linked to the present. Here, the mindmaker is the hippocampusHippocampusThe hippocampus is a major component of the brains of humans and other vertebrates. It belongs to the limbic system and plays important roles in the consolidation of information from short-term memory to long-term memory and spatial navigation. Humans and other mammals have two hippocampi, one in...
. It underlies memoryMemoryIn psychology, memory is an organism's ability to store, retain, and recall information and experiences. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing memory....
and the sense of continuity of selfSelf (psychology)The psychology of self is the study of either the cognitive and affective representation of one's identity or the subject of experience. The earliest formulation of the self in modern psychology derived from the distinction between the self as I, the subjective knower, and the self as Me, the...
, other and place. - What Are We?: Mindmakers are not consciousnessConsciousnessConsciousness is a term that refers to the relationship between the mind and the world with which it interacts. It has been defined as: subjectivity, awareness, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood, and the executive control system of the mind...
but they make it possible. They become the consciousness of "I" and "willFree will"To make my own decisions whether I am successful or not due to uncontrollable forces" -Troy MorrisonA pragmatic definition of free willFree will is the ability of agents to make choices free from certain kinds of constraints. The existence of free will and its exact nature and definition have long...
" by embodiment. The human brain embodies not only its body extension, but its “troop within its head” and the inner orchestration done by its prefrontal cortex. - Of Human Bonding: The change that turned apes into humans was the ability to decouple social and personal bonds from everyday contact. This allowed new kinds of bonds such as those of marriageMarriageMarriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
, in-law kin, cultureCultureCulture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
and religionReligionReligion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
. - The Symbolic Brain: Symbols enabled this decoupling of bonds. Symbols are cognitive stand-ins -- a wedding ringWedding ringA wedding ring or wedding band is a metal ring indicating the wearer is married. Depending on the local culture, it is worn on the base of the right or the left ring finger. The custom of wearing such a ring has spread widely beyond its origin in Europe...
stands in for a marriageMarriageMarriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
bond. The prefrontal cortex generates symbols. This enabled hunter-gatherer genes to develop new forms of social life including that of modern people. - LucyLucy (Australopithecus)Lucy is the common name of AL 288-1, several hundred pieces of bone representing about 40% of the skeleton of an individual Australopithecus afarensis. The specimen was discovered in 1974 at Hadar in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia's Afar Depression. Lucy is estimated to have lived 3.2 million years...
and KanziKanziKanzi , also known by the lexigram , is a male bonobo who has been featured in several studies on great ape language. According to Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, a primatologist who has studied the bonobo throughout her life, Kanzi has exhibited advanced linguistic aptitude.- Biography :Born to Lorel and...
: The symbol making potential of the prefrontal cortex arose to enable extended familyExtended familyThe term extended family has several distinct meanings. In modern Western cultures dominated by nuclear family constructs, it has come to be used generically to refer to grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins, whether they live together within the same household or not. However, it may also refer...
bonds across the African savannahSavannahSavannah or savanna is a type of grassland.It can also mean:-People:* Savannah King, a Canadian freestyle swimmer* Savannah Outen, a singer who gained popularity on You Tube...
. “Gifted environments” also arose created by adults so young brains could be helped to learn and enrich their minds with symbols. - The Runaway Species: HomoHomoHomo may refer to:*the Greek prefix ὅμο-, meaning "the same"*the Latin for man, human being*Homo, the taxonomical genus including modern humans...
brains expanded to be good parents. Successful brains selected partners with brains with which they could best raise children. A runaway selectionFisherian runawayFisherian runaway is a model of sexual selection, first proposed by R.A. Fisher in 1915, and expanded upon in his 1930 book The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, that suggests an explanation for sexual selection of traits that do not obviously increase fitness of survival, based upon a...
resulted between brain size, mate selectionSexual selectionSexual selection, a concept introduced by Charles Darwin in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species, is a significant element of his theory of natural selection...
and skilled parenting. - The Billion-Hour Journey: That modern people are not hunter-gatherers is due to mindware – the mind expanding systems of symbols – that evolved in the last 120,000 years. The process started slow, but then “bootstrappedBootstrappingBootstrapping or booting refers to a group of metaphors that share a common meaning: a self-sustaining process that proceeds without external help....
” itself and accelerated. It now underlies the thoughts and feelings of modern huma - Third Millennium Brain: The rewriting of the brain's potentials that started in the past still continues. “Braintech” is arising and will enhance humans even more. It is suggested that humans knowing that their origins lie in their brains, rather than ancient myth, will gain Brain Rights and enter a new Era -- that of the Brain.
Concepts
The book introduces and argues for novel ideas in human evolutionPaleoanthropology
Paleoanthropology, which combines the disciplines of paleontology and physical anthropology, is the study of ancient humans as found in fossil hominid evidence such as petrifacted bones and footprints.-19th century:...
, neuroscience
Neuroscience
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Traditionally, neuroscience has been seen as a branch of biology. However, it is currently an interdisciplinary science that collaborates with other fields such as chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics,...
, social neuroscience
Social neuroscience
Social neuroscience is an interdisciplinary field devoted to understanding how biological systems implement social processes and behavior, and to using biological concepts and methods to inform and refine theories of social processes and behavior. Humans are fundamentally a social species, rather...
and the humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
.
Gifted environments
These are the learningLearning
Learning is acquiring new or modifying existing knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, or preferences and may involve synthesizing different types of information. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals and some machines. Progress over time tends to follow learning curves.Human learning...
environments humans create. Components of a gifted environment include “a rich variety of representations”, a “stimulating learning environment”, and “’empowering environments’—ones which foster specific paths of development, an opportunity sometimes limited to brief windows of developmental time” It is proposed that such gifted environments are created by adult prefrontal cortex. The potential to create gifted environments predates humans and exists in chimpanzees. But they are limited because as adults chimpanzees lack time, cooperate only weakly and are under constant stress. It was the highly cooperative sociability of humans that allowed gifted environments to arise that could fully support cognitive development.
Human change bootstrapping problem
BootstrappingBootstrapping
Bootstrapping or booting refers to a group of metaphors that share a common meaning: a self-sustaining process that proceeds without external help....
concerns the paradox that the best way for something to occur is for it to already to be established. This problem has been identified in computer
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
and cognitive science
Cognitive science
Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary scientific study of mind and its processes. It examines what cognition is, what it does and how it works. It includes research on how information is processed , represented, and transformed in behaviour, nervous system or machine...
as an important obstacle: computers need to load programs to start but this is best done when they have already loaded the program for doing this; reading
Reading education
Reading education is the process by which individuals are taught to derive meaning from text.Government-funded scientific research on reading and reading instruction began in the U.S. in the 1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s, researchers began publishing findings based on converging evidence from...
is easier to acquire once a person can already read. Cognitive development can be interpreted as the process by which cognitive systems sidestep and work around bootstrapping problems that would otherwise obstruct cognitive growth. The bootstrapping problem is proposed to explain why human cultural and technological developments often take so long to historically develop and then accelerate: the best circumstances for such innovations to flourish often arise only when they already exist.
Human ticket
All animal species except humans live in much the same biological manner in which they evolved. Humans in contrast have journeyed away from being simple hunter-gatherers to becoming citizens of hi-tech nation states. Biologically this is odd since modern people still basically have the same genes as their early hunter-gatherers ancestors. This raises the question of what had evolved, the ticket, in those early humans that gave them to the potential to change later on so radically.NP + PC Formula
- The evolution of human intelligence is expressed in a Neural Plasticity + Prefrontal Cortex formula that is progressively elaborated:
- NP + PC + ape mind = human mind
- NP + PC + fission-fusion ape social skills = human social symbols
- NP + PC + ape sensory and motor skills = human nonsocial symbols
- NP + PC + FF ape skills + symbols + 109 hours = contemporary mind
- NP + PC + mindware + braintech = future mind
Cognitive stand-ins
Symbols adapt already evolved functions to create novel ones by replacing their evolved inputs and outputs with nonevolved representations. ReadingReading (process)
Reading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols for the intention of constructing or deriving meaning . It is a means of language acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information and ideas...
and writing
Writing
Writing is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and non-symbolic preservation of language via non-textual media, such as magnetic tape audio.Writing most likely...
are such new functions that rewire the functions of visual
Visual cortex
The visual cortex of the brain is the part of the cerebral cortex responsible for processing visual information. It is located in the occipital lobe, in the back of the brain....
, speech
Broca's area
Broca's area is a region of the hominid brain with functions linked to speech production.The production of language has been linked to the Broca’s area since Pierre Paul Broca reported impairments in two patients. They had lost the ability to speak after injury to the posterior inferior frontal...
and other cortical areas by letters
Letter (alphabet)
A letter is a grapheme in an alphabetic system of writing, such as the Greek alphabet and its descendants. Letters compose phonemes and each phoneme represents a phone in the spoken form of the language....
and logogram stand-ins.
Cortical catalyst
Chemical catalystsCatalysis
Catalysis is the change in rate of a chemical reaction due to the participation of a substance called a catalyst. Unlike other reagents that participate in the chemical reaction, a catalyst is not consumed by the reaction itself. A catalyst may participate in multiple chemical transformations....
work by creating chemical bonds by bringing existing substances into reaction
Chemical reaction
A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. Chemical reactions can be either spontaneous, requiring no input of energy, or non-spontaneous, typically following the input of some type of energy, such as heat, light or electricity...
using intermediaries, and by temporal and spatial conjunction. The prefrontal cortex works similarly upon information processing
Information processing
Information processing is the change of information in any manner detectable by an observer. As such, it is a process which describes everything which happens in the universe, from the falling of a rock to the printing of a text file from a digital computer system...
happening elsewhere in the brain through creating working memory
Working memory
Working memory has been defined as the system which actively holds information in the mind to do verbal and nonverbal tasks such as reasoning and comprehension, and to make it available for further information processing...
space. This space allows novel intermediary forms of association to be created and held together between different information processing systems in the brain. This process is essential to the formation of symbols and symbol based cognition.
Free cortex
Due to brain enlargementCranial capacity
Cranial capacity is a measure of the volume of the interior of the cranium of those vertebrates who have both a cranium and a brain. The most commonly used unit of measure is the cubic centimetre or cc...
in humans, most of the human cerebral cortex
Cerebral cortex
The cerebral cortex is a sheet of neural tissue that is outermost to the cerebrum of the mammalian brain. It plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and consciousness. It is constituted of up to six horizontal layers, each of which has a different...
lacks tightly evolved functions and so is open to acquire nonevolved skills. Even highly evolved cortical areas such as the primary visual and auditory cortices
Primary auditory cortex
The primary auditory cortex is the region of the brain that is responsible for the processing of auditory information. Corresponding roughly with Brodmann areas 41 and 42, it is located on the temporal lobe, and performs the basics of hearing—pitch and volume...
can to a surprising degree take on new functions. Semantics
Semantics
Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....
can develop in the visual cortex of those born blind
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
, and vision
Visual perception
Visual perception is the ability to interpret information and surroundings from the effects of visible light reaching the eye. The resulting perception is also known as eyesight, sight, or vision...
can develop in the auditory cortex in experimental animals when retinal
Retinal
Retinal, also called retinaldehyde or vitamin A aldehyde, is one of the many forms of vitamin A . Retinal is a polyene chromophore, and bound to proteins called opsins, is the chemical basis of animal vision...
input is redirected into it. The association areas of the cerebral cortex lack the input constraints of primary areas. As a result they are even more open to acquire novel cognitive capabilities.
Memory headers
John MortonJohn Morton (scientist)
John Morton OBE, FRS was the director of the now defunct Medical Research Council Cognitive Development Unit at University College London. He is at present a professor at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience....
has proposed that memories are organized by headed records. The function of the hippocampus is suggested to be providing such headers for memory. They also underlie the human capacity to experience in spite of superficial changes the continuity of self, other and place.
Pain as benevolent dictator
PainPain
Pain is an unpleasant sensation often caused by intense or damaging stimuli such as stubbing a toe, burning a finger, putting iodine on a cut, and bumping the "funny bone."...
is argued to be a protective attentive envelope (see below) that temporary acts to protect injured or easily injured parts of the body from actions controlled by the brain.
Protective attentive envelopes
Aircraft have flight envelope protectionFlight envelope protection
right|thumb| 327 px| [[China Airlines Flight 006]] damaged by going outside its [[flight envelope]] to gain control after a drop in twenty seconds of 3,000 m...
systems that stop pilots acting in a manner that might harm the aircraft but which allow them to make quick but safe actions. The anterior cingulate cortex
Anterior cingulate cortex
The anterior cingulate cortex is the frontal part of the cingulate cortex, that resembles a "collar" form around the corpus callosum, the fibrous bundle that relays neural signals between the right and left cerebral hemispheres of the brain...
is argued to act as a “hidden observer” over what we do “attention-to-action” and it provides a similar function for humans. These envelopes underlie the experience of self-consciousness, anxiety
Anxiety
Anxiety is a psychological and physiological state characterized by somatic, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components. The root meaning of the word anxiety is 'to vex or trouble'; in either presence or absence of psychological stress, anxiety can create feelings of fear, worry, uneasiness,...
and pain.
Limbic symbolons
Symbolons were ancient GreekAncient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
tokens or insignia by which people who were bonded could spot each other (the word comes from the Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
“symballein” which means “to throw together”). The problem of social primates is to create bonds
Human bonding
Human bonding is the process of development of a close, interpersonal relationship. It most commonly takes place between family members or friends, but can also develop among groups such as sporting teams and whenever people spend time together...
that are flexible yet also allow prolonged separation. Limbic symbolons are symbols that enable emotional attachments established in other apes by smell, grooming and to some degree sight, to cope with physical separation by an internal (mental name) or external (wedding ring) stand-in that is always cognitively present. Limbic symbols are usually publicly defined (another advantage) and acquired in rituals. “Early hominid environments were dangerous and food resources patchy and irregular, which placed a premium on individuals able to exploit kin relations and extend social links beyond the immediate present. Such pressures promoted symbolism, originally to stand for kin recognition and social relationships, enabling these to be maintained over time and space even when the relevant individuals were absent. These developments in turn lead to more complex social networks and the cognitive abilities to exploit these.”
Nonimmediate sociability
Two kinds of sociability exist: immediate and nonimmediate. The former depends upon sensory interaction with others such as smellBody odor
Body odor or body odour, sometimes colloquially abbreviated as B.O., is the smell of bacteria growing on the body. The bacteria multiply rapidly in the presence of sweat, but sweat itself is almost completely odorless to humans....
, touch, sound or vision. Nonimmediate depends upon carrying the experience of the group within the head. Such sociability is already present in apes and is due to processes called mindmakers. But due to the modification of these mindmakers with symbolons, sociability in groups has become highly developed in humans. The combination of symbols and mindmakers created social mindware.
Mindmakers
These are “processes that weave this sense we all have of being a ‘me. .. give existence its animated feel, the feeling of being alive. They are clues to understanding such things as our freedom and the links between the prefrontal cortex’s inner cues and our hidden sociability’”. Mindmakers evolved to enable animals to remain part of a social group when separated. Mindmaker processes are identified in the anterior cingulate cortex (protective attentive envelopes), hippocampus (continuity), orbitofrontal cortex (social right and wrong). Mindmakers are present in other animals but only in humans have they become extensively elaborated. They also provide the neural substrate for cultural symbolism and so the human ability to sustain socially defined groups and personal bonds.Mindware
Mindware is the symbolic counterpart of mindmakers. The concept differs from that of memes in the way that the descriptive notion of a “bridgeBridge
A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...
” differs from that of specified engineering types of bridges (suspension
Suspension bridge
A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. Outside Tibet and Bhutan, where the first examples of this type of bridge were built in the 15th century, this type of bridge dates from the early 19th century...
, cantilever
Cantilever bridge
A cantilever bridge is a bridge built using cantilevers, structures that project horizontally into space, supported on only one end. For small footbridges, the cantilevers may be simple beams; however, large cantilever bridges designed to handle road or rail traffic use trusses built from...
, arch
Arch bridge
An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either side...
and so on). In the latter, what transmits is understood in terms of the specific engineering processes that support that transmission rather than the general idea of transmission. The use of a wedding ring is a meme
Meme
A meme is "an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena...
when viewed from the perspective of transmitted culture, but it is mindware when viewed from the neurological changes it makes to the attachment processes in the brain that sustain the emotional bond of marriage. The acquisition of social mindware is closely linked with rituals. In mindware “the human ape found a brain programming language to bond across time and place—symbolic culture. This was to change forever what it meant to be a brain. Now the human mind could live in thousands of varieties of life. …with their mindware humans set themselves apart from other animals and the rest of nature”.
Social embodiment
The subjective sense of embodiment in our extended physical bodyBody
With regard to living things, a body is the physical body of an individual. "Body" often is used in connection with appearance, health issues and death...
relates to its capacity to act through it and so interact with the autonomous physical world. The human brain also acts within the autonomous world of social relationships
Interpersonal relationship
An interpersonal relationship is an association between two or more people that may range from fleeting to enduring. This association may be based on limerence, love, solidarity, regular business interactions, or some other type of social commitment. Interpersonal relationships are formed in the...
. This social embodiment gives rise to a sense of social “me” . Consciousness is the embodied attention of the brain to its causality in such social relationships and the physical world.
Superfission-fusion ape
The sociability of social apes is fission-fusionFission-fusion society
In primatology, a fission-fusion society is one in which the social group, e.g. bonobo collectives of 100-strong, sleep in one locality together, but forage in small groups going off in different directions during the day. This form of social organization occurs in several other species of...
. In this members of a group regularly separate into small subgroups (fission) but at the same time still belong to the same group (fusion). Human are unique in the robust ability of their bonds to survive prolonged physical separation. This is due to symbols. Another factor is that these bonds can be publicly defined and so create symbolic culture. This makes humans a superfission-fusion ape.
Brain Age
The EraEra
An era is a commonly used word for long period of time. When used in science, for example geology, eras denote clearly defined periods of time of arbitrary but well defined length, such as for example the Mesozoic era from 252 Ma–66 Ma, delimited by a start event and an end event. When used in...
that will follow the present one will be the Brain Age. In this neuroscience
Neuroscience
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Traditionally, neuroscience has been seen as a branch of biology. However, it is currently an interdisciplinary science that collaborates with other fields such as chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics,...
will replace the ancient myths that at present shape how people understand themselves. Further, braintech (see below) will arise that enables humans to reshape the competences of their brain. This Era will continue the reshaping of our species that has happened since its origins 120,000 years ago. Braintech represents the last frontier faced by the human species.
Brain Rights
Humans are social primates who use superficial differences (such as skin pigmentationHuman skin color
Human skin color is primarily due to the presence of melanin in the skin. Skin color ranges from almost black to white with a pinkish tinge due to blood vessels underneath. Variation in natural skin color is mainly due to genetics, although the evolutionary causes are not completely certain...
) or symbols based upon ancient myth to identify their group membership
Social identity
A social identity is the portion of an individual's self-concept derived from perceived membership in a relevant social group. As originally formulated by Henri Tajfel and John Turner in the 1970s and 80s, social identity theory introduced the concept of a social identity as a way in which to...
. Brains offer a firmer foundation for our identity since they underlie the core of who we are in our shared “vulnerability, richness, history, and giftedness”. Understanding this is our true nature. It follows that “Each of our brains should be guaranteed the right to grow unhandicapped and supplied with the best possible nurture and support”, and “a gifted environment sensitive to its uniqueness”.
Braintech
Humans from early on when using stone tools have created technologies that have enhanced their abilities. This will continue with the still unexplored potential of the brain. One area is awareness of its hidden functioning as this is needed to better train it. The future of present functional imagingFunctional imaging
Functional imaging , is a method of detecting or measuring changes in metabolism, blood flow, regional chemical composition, and absorption....
is proposed to be akin to that of computers as in the 1960s. Like such past computers such technology will spiral down in price and convenience so that this braintech (like computers today) will become an essential part of everyday human life.
Criticisms
- Fails to link with earlier work upon “cognitive ergonomics”.p.143
- The description of the prefrontal cortex “begs for more commentary on their likely causes, consequences, and context”.p.143
- Fails to discuss helping behavior before “primate or even mammalian sociality emerged”.p.144
- Should have explored cost/benefits of sociosexual selection.p.146
- Lacks “an unambiguous definition of mindware … the resemblance to (if not identity with) ‘culture’ needs to be explored”.p.146
- The field of psychoneuroendocrinologyPsychoneuroendocrinologyPsychoneuroendocrinology is the clinical study of hormone fluctuations and their relationship to human behavior. It may be viewed from the perspective of psychiatry, where in certain mood disorders, there are associated neuroendocrine or hormonal changes affecting the brain...
and the developmental forces such as sensitive periodsSensitive periodsSensitive periods is a term coined by the Dutch geneticist Hugo de Vries and adopted by the Italian educator Maria Montessori to refer to important periods of childhood development....
and behavior genetics is neglected.p.147 - Its account of consciousness which depends upon coherence does not explain “possession, dissociation, out-of-body experiences and addictions”.p.279
- “The authors seem to fall all too easily into a simplistic materialism”.p.279
- The notion of Brain Age is wrong: “It is not the brain age, but the mind age, the culture age, the dawning realization of our capacity to program our brain to do many different things.p.279
- Lacks anatomical and flowchart illustrations.
- Does not discuss the work of Leda CosmidesLeda CosmidesLeda Cosmides, is an American psychologist, who, together with anthropologist husband John Tooby, helped develop the field of evolutionary psychology....
and John ToobyJohn ToobyJohn Tooby is an American anthropologist, who, together with psychologist wife Leda Cosmides, helped pioneer the field of evolutionary psychology....
nor Steven MithenSteven MithenSteve Mithen is a Professor of Archaeology at the University of Reading. He has written a number of books including The Singing Neanderthals and The Prehistory of the Mind: The Cognitive Origins of Art, Religion and Science.-See also:...
.
See also
- Behavioral modernityBehavioral modernityBehavioral modernity is a term used in anthropology, archeology and sociology to refer to a set of traits that distinguish present day humans and their recent ancestors from both living primates and other extinct hominid lineages. It is the point at which Homo sapiens began to demonstrate a...
- Evolution of human intelligence
- Human conditionHuman conditionThe human condition encompasses the experiences of being human in a social, cultural, and personal context. It can be described as the irreducible part of humanity that is inherent and not connected to gender, race, class, etc. — a search for purpose, sense of curiosity, the inevitability of...
- Human natureHuman natureHuman nature refers to the distinguishing characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting, that humans tend to have naturally....
- Memes
- Nature versus nurtureNature versus nurtureThe nature versus nurture debate concerns the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities versus personal experiences The nature versus nurture debate concerns the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities ("nature," i.e. nativism, or innatism) versus personal experiences...
- Tabula rasaTabula rasaTabula rasa is the epistemological theory that individuals are born without built-in mental content and that their knowledge comes from experience and perception. Generally proponents of the tabula rasa thesis favour the "nurture" side of the nature versus nurture debate, when it comes to aspects...
- Triune brainTriune brainThe triune brain is a model of the evolution of the vertebrate forebrain and behavior proposed by the American physician and neuroscientist Paul D. MacLean. MacLean originally formulated his model in the 1960s and propounded it at length in his 1990 book The Triune Brain in Evolution...
- Symbolic Species by Terrence DeaconTerrence DeaconTerrence William Deacon is an American anthropologist . He taught at Harvard for eight years, relocated to Boston University in 1992, and is currently Professor of Biological Anthropology and Neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley.-Theoretical interests:Prof...
- Blank SlateThe Blank SlateThe Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature is a best-selling 2002 book by Steven Pinker arguing against tabula rasa models of the social sciences. Pinker argues that human behavior is substantially shaped by evolutionary psychological adaptations...
by Steven PinkerSteven PinkerSteven Arthur Pinker is a Canadian-American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, linguist and popular science author...
Editions
- Skoyles, J. R. and Sagan, D. (2003) Il drago nello specchio. L'evoluzione dell'intelligenza umana dal big bang al terzo millennio. Sironi, Milan, ISBN 978-88-518-0023-9
External links
- Human existence John Skoyles website
- Screenwriters Dorion Sagan website
- Russell Farrell Website of the cover art illustrator
- The “Up from Dragons” illustration The full painting used on the book cover
- Book summary at Les automates intelligents robotique, vie artificielle, réalité virtuelle
