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Humans began to rapidly accumulate technological knowledge 600k years ago

(news.asu.edu)
273 points geox | 1 comments | 17 Jun 24 21:28 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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gcanyon ◴[18 Jun 24 00:41 UTC] No.40712874[source]▶
You 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.
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dboreham ◴[18 Jun 24 01:03 UTC] No.40713012[source]▶
Theory: there are no humans without language. Consider: what language do you think in?
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mkl ◴[18 Jun 24 01:09 UTC] No.40713064[source]▶
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....
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palad1n ◴[18 Jun 24 01:28 UTC] No.40713166[source]▶
Indeed, there are two types of people in that regard, whose mind is blown (usually) that there is another type. One thinks in words, one has no words but a smooth stream of thought going.
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thaumasiotes ◴[18 Jun 24 01:48 UTC] No.40713292{3}[source]▶
> Indeed, there are two types of people in that regard

> One thinks in words

No. There are people who believe they think in words, because they haven't bothered to examine the question, but there are no people who think in words.

Think about the number of people you've ever seen do a double take at the idea that "I don't know how to put this into words".

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1. Rattled ◴[18 Jun 24 08:19 UTC] No.40715303{4}[source]▶
Why is it so hard to accept that different people can have a different internal experience of our shared reality? Perhaps different people have conscious awareness of different aspects of their own cognition pipelines though the pipeline is similar for most people, or perhaps there is a more fundamental diversity in how different people think. I find it interesting though how strong an aversion some have to being told what's going on in their own heads.