Evolution in One Year
Since the age of the earth has been estimated at five billion years — an intolerably large number to grasp — a more realistic time frame for us would be this: to telescope that five billion years into a one-year period. Thus, the first eight months of our year pass with no sign of life. Only during the ninth and tenth months would we begin to see primal life forming.
As we continue watching, these lowly creatures quickly evolve through November, and in December we finally see the first mammals appear. But it isn’t until 10:30 P.M. (2,000,000 years ago) on December 31, that the first hominids, near-men, appear in northern Africa (The Dragons of Eden).
When these beings begin to communicate through grunts, clicks, hand gestures and body movements, homo-sapiens has at last arrived, almost certainly by 700,000 B.C. claims Modern Civilization. Scholars disagree about the appearance of fully communicating man on our historic scene. Science (Vol. 303, 2004) claims that “fully developed language was in place by at least 50,000 years ago.”
Whichever, in our telescoped time frame, speaking man appears within the last hour or so of the very last day of December of our year. Even more incredible, we start to find written symbols and primitive pictographs only within the last sixty seconds of our year—roughly 5 to 10,000 years of real time.
We see that as these beings named “people” evolve, so does their communication. We notice, too, that the creatures which use it are advancing much more quickly than all other animals. (Personal Knowledge).
Up to a point, we observe that both men and brutes learn in very similar ways (Personal Knowledge). Both are able to learn a variety of responses when confronted with a correct stimulus be it real or symbolic: men and apes can learn to push a lever for food; both can learn that a certain color or command means stop or danger. We see both make simple inferences: apes and men will stack boxes, often precariously, to get food or climb over the wall of an enclosure. Men and chimpanzees will use sticks to knock down fruit from a tree branch.
It appears to us that language definitely organizes thinking
(Human Communication). With its unique power, we are able to call up symbolized experiences or data, to rethink it, to compare experiences, to make informed decisions, to build further mental abstractions and inferences.
Article comments
1 - Joanne Huspek
Great article. I love words.
2 - Bliffle
Excellent article!
As it happens, I just ran across this by Walt Whitman, which you may enjoy:
“In a dream I once had, I saw a vessel on the sea, at midnight, in a storm. It was no great full-rigg‘d ship, nor majestic steamer, steering firmly through the gale, but seem‘d one of those superb little schooner yachts I had often seen lying anchor‘d, rocking so jauntily, in the waters around New York, or up Long Island sound " now flying uncontroll‘d with torn sails and broken spars through the wild sleet and winds and waves of the night. On the deck was a slender, slight, beautiful figure, a dim man, apparently enjoying all the terror, the murk, and the dislocation of which he was the centre and the victim. That figure of my lurid dream might stand for Edgar Poe, his spirit, his fortunes, and his poems " themselves all lurid dreams.” " (Walt Whitman, The Washington Star, November 16, 1875.)
3 - Ruvy
I found this article amusing. Having studied linguistics, and now having to study a Semitic language just to get by on a day-to-day basis, I find the recommendation to study Greek or Latin superfluous. A glance at an older dictionary (one with a section on foreign phrases), and a healthy understanding of Latin and Greek roots does wonders in revealing how the Greeks and Romans thought.
As to the word "thing", it means "council" - or that which is under consideration by a council. From that root meaning it has kind of expanded to meaninglessness. I very rarely use the word "stuff" (except as a verb).