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Bonobos use a kind of syntax once thought to be unique to humans

(www.newscientist.com)
189 points docmechanic | 1 comments | 07 Apr 25 15:51 UTC | HN request time: 0.2s | source
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mattdeboard ◴[11 Apr 25 17:26 UTC] No.43656266[source]▶
Reinforcing my strongly held belief that what fundamentally sets humans apart isn't spoken language, or tools, or any of that, but rather the fact we write down what we know, then make those writings available to future generations to build on. We're a species distinguished from all others by our information-archival and -dissemination practices. We're an archivist species, a librarian species. Homo archivum. In my opinion.
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1. wqaatwt ◴[12 Apr 25 20:32 UTC] No.43667727[source]▶
> but rather the fact we write down what we know, then make those writings available to future generations to build

As far as we can tell humans were doing that orally for thousands of years before writing became a thing.

You had major civilizations with complex bureaucracies that were not effectively almost entirely illiterate..