Understanding the origins of socio-technical humans and the PowerPoint Presentation, PPT - DocSlides

Understanding the origins of socio-technical humans and their organizations —Coevolution of technology, cognition, culture and organizations

William P. HallPresidentKororoit Institute Proponents and Supporters Assoc., Inc. - http://kororoit.orgwilliam-hall@bigpond.comhttp://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net

Access my research papers supporting the work from

Google Citations

Application Holy Wars or a New Reformation a fugue on the theory of knowledge

Hypertext book explores coevolution and revolutions in human cognition and cognitive technologies leading to the emergence of modern knowledge-based socio-technical organizations as living entitiesLast episode explains how coevolution of cognition and technologies enabled forest-dwelling apes to become “human” and dominate the entire planet in something like 4 my.Key discoveries over the last 2-3 years allow construction of a complete evolutionary hypothesis GenomicsPaleontologyPaleoarchaeology

2

Comparative biology

Comparative

ethology

Cognitive science

3

Book theme: Revolutions in material technology cause grade shifts in the ecological nature of the human species

M = millions, K = thousands, C = centuries,

D = decades, Y = years,

(A

=

ago)

Accelerating change in our material technologies:

>

2.5

mya

-

Tool Making

:

sticks and stone tools plus

fire extend human

reach, diet

and digestion

~

11

kya

-

Agricultural Revolution

: Ropes and digging implements

control

and manage non–human organic metabolism

~ 3.5

ca

-

Industrial Revolution

:

extends/replaces

human and animal muscle power with

inorganic mechanical

power

~ 5

da

-

Microelectronics Revolution

: extends human cognitive capabilities with computers

> 10

ya

-

Cyborg

Revolution

:

convergence of

human and machine cognition with

smartphones

(today) and

neural

prosthetics (tomorrow)

4

Grade shifting revolutions in human technologies repeatedly reinvent the nature of human cognition

Accelerating change in extending human cognition~ 5 mya – Tacit transfer of tool-using/making knowledge begins to add cultural inheritance to genetic inheritance~ 500 kya - Emergence of speech for the direct transfer of cultural knowledge between individuals~ 11 kya – Invention of physical counters (11 K), writing and reading (5 K) to record and transmit knowledge external to human memory (technology to transfer culture)~ 5.6 ca - printing and universal literacy transmit knowledge to the masses (cultural use of technology)~ 32 ya - computing tools actively manage corporate data/ knowledge externally to the human brain (32 Y) and personal knowledge (World Wide Web - 18 Y)~ 10 ya- smartphones merge human and technological cognition (human & technological convergence)~ Now: Emergence of human-machine cyborgs (wearable and implanted technology becoming part of the human body)

Some recent milestone publications constraining the development of an evolutionary hypothesis explaining how this happened

Critical species of Homo

Dmanisi Georgia (Lordkipanidze et al. e.g., 2013)Variation in H. georgicus shows H. erectus, ergaster, & probably also rudolfensis and habilis form one chronospecies persisting through timeerectus longest lived Homo, spread widely through Africa and (via Dmanisi) Eurasiafloresiensis (Hobbit) lived a few thousand years ago on Flores (Indonesia) probably derived from erectus (Kubo et al. 2013).Modern sibling species: analysis of highly accurate genomes from modern sapiens and Denisovans (Meyer et al. 2012) & Neanderthals (Prüfer et al 2014) from Denisova Cave, Altai Mountains, Siberia showEvolutionary divergence ~ 300 kya, Limited interbreeding with introgressionHybrid infertility sufficient for effective isolation

6

Wood, B. 2012

. Facing up to complexity. Nature 488, 162-163 -

http://tinyurl.com/k53ofwy

.

Fossils (1.8 my) first hominins out of Africa – ancestor/early Homo erectus

7

Lordkipanidze

, D., et al. 2013. A complete skull from

Dmanisi, Georgia, and the evolutionary biology of early Homo. Science 342, 326-331 http://tinyurl.com/kbnwxnn.

Lordkipanidze, D., et al. 2005. The earliest toothless hominin skull. Nature 434, 717-718.

(Oct. 2013) 1.8 mya ~550-730 cc cranial capacity, fully bipedal, scavanged or hunted large game with Oldowan grade butchering tools; first hominins out of Africa (Hertler et al. 2013)

Individual had been toothless for years before death, implying strong social support

network?

Latest genomics (5 my) establishes accurate genealogy, showing bifurcations and

interspecific hybridization

8

Prüfer

, K., et al., Pääbo, S. 2014. The complete genome sequence of a Neanderthal from the Altai Mountains. Nature 505, 43–49 –http://tinyurl.com/lvg96n2.

Meyer, M., et al., Pääbo, S. 2014. A mitochondrial genome sequence of a hominin from Sima de los Huesos. Nature 505, 403–406 - http://tinyurl.com/lv6z8xo

From 300-400 kya fossil Homo

Red arrows show inter-specific hybridization with introgression of genes and proportion of genomeintrogressed (Dec. 2013)

4500 kya

Shows stepwise genealogical derivation based on sequence of single nucleotide mutations (Dec, 2013)

Eriksson A et al.

PNAS 2012;109:16089-16094

Genomic analysis shows all living

humans descended from people living in the E or S Africa some 70 kya. Eurasian mDNA six steps derived from oldest AfricanNeanderthal/Denisovan ancestor (anticessor / heidelbergensis?) entered Eurasia before sapiens emigrants from AfricaExcept for genes survivingfrom limited introgressive hybridization where they met Neanderthals & Denisovans, African emigrants to Eurasia replaced all pre-existing hominins including the wide-spread H. erectus that entered Eurasia by 1.8 mya.

Hominins exiting the East African homeland

9

Behar 2008

;

Cruciani

et al. 201

1;

Rasmussen et al. 2011

;

Oppenheimer 2012

;

Henn

et al. 2012

;

Sankararaman

et al. 2012

;

Pugach

et al. 2012

;

Boivin

et al. 2013

;

Mellars

2013

; Fu et al. 2013;

Rohling

et al. 2013

;

Sankararaman

et al. 2014;

Vernot

&

Akey

2014;

Thinking about hominid evolution

Paleoclimatology over 7 my describes a framework of fluctuating ecological change driving hominin evolution

11

Potts, R. 2013. Hominin evolution in settings of strong environmental variability. Quaternary Science Reviews 73, 1-13

Hominin evolution and environmental variability over the past 7 million years.

Alternative responses to variability

Genetic adaptation (change)

Cultural change

Cultural accumulation

Genes & memes – genetic vs cultural adaptation

GenesDetermine individual anatomical, physiological and neurological capacitiesMutation: physical change to one or more DNA nucleotides on a chromosome Change is slow multi-generational process depending on natural selectionMovement rather than increased versatilityMeme = unit of culture (an idea or value or pattern of behavior or knowledge) that may be passed between individuals or from one generation to another by non-genetic meansChange often intra-generational depending on innovation, social relationships and processes Transmission limited by genetic capacity to communicate detailed informationEssential information easily lost or corrupted over generations.Rate and extent of cultural accumulation depend on genetic capacity, group size, (culturally transmitted) cultural practices

12

Adaptation = application of genetic or cultural knowledge to solve problems of life

Natural selection on genes works at the level of individual genetic variation depending on successes of carriers of particular genes in the populationSelection on cultural knowledge works at the level of culturally variant groups, depending on successes of the different groups.A group whose shared cultural knowledge allows it to solve problems other groups can’t solve grows at the expense of those other groupsSuccessful items of cultural knowledge may be carried by individuals between groups to speed the evolutionary arms raceRate of cultural evolution depends on individuals’ genetically determined capacities to understand, remember, and transmit cultural knowledge

13

Niche shifts (left) vs niche expansions (right). Vertical axis represents survival probability of particular phenotypes.

Niche shiftMutation is blindNatural selection tracks current requirements, generally with continuing specializationNiche expansionRetain original adaptation together with adding new capabilities, i.e., accumulation or (very rare) cases of gene duplication and functional divergenceNew mutation crosses adaptive threshold opening new adaptive landscape (i.e., grade shift)

14

15

Thinking about making & using tools ― Cognitively controlled processes to kill prey with a stone-tipped spear

Understanding cognitive demands of technologies

Thinking a stone-tipped spear Long sequence of steps over time to make a spear used to bring down prey (chains of operation/cognigram)making a bow and arrow set is at least 3x more difficulteach arrow indicates ordered application of specific knowledge

(“Chain of operations” Lombard

2012;

Lombard &

Haidle

2012

)

Evolutionary hypothesis

―

How tool-using

savanna

apes came to dominate Planet Earth

Socially foraging, tool-using forest apes in East African Rift Valley 5 mya

17

Chimps using probes to collect ants. Probe

is inserted almost to full length into earth.

Child watching mother crack otherwise inedible

palm nuts using stone hammer & anvil.

Adaptive

plateaus achieved in the Pliocene as our ancestors became more bipedal and better adapted to open and arid environments (White et al. 2009)

(click pictures below to view videos)

Chimpanzee last common ancestor (CLCA)

Fission-fusion social structure, some transfer of cultural knowledgeHigh selfishness, limited cooperation in defense and huntingSavanna ape faced survival problemsEdible plant resources more widely scattered and harder to findNew food resources neededRoots, tubers, nutsMeatsNew dangersBig catsHyenasWild dogsBearsSelection pressuresIncreasing need to retain and transfer cultural knowledgePressure to increase brain capacity: increased fine motor skills, social learning, more cohesive and cooperative group dynamics

(Tattersall 2012 – “Masters of the Planet”)

Climatic deterioration in E African Rift Valley left forest apes stranded on grassy woodlands and savanna ~5 mya

18

Hominins using

haak

en

steek branches as tools (Guthrie 2007): a. for driving big cats away from their prey. b. for hunting - given the simple conversion of a thorn branch into a "megathorn" lance.

Cooperative defense and scavenging of carnivore kills cached in trees gave early hominins increased access to meat on the savanna

Simple requisites for grade shift to aggressive scavenging on the groundCoordinated & cooperative defense and offense using effective deterrenceOldowan butchering tools for cutting skin & ligaments

19

Savanna

offers limited resource of edible plant foods but a rich supply of grass-eating herbivore meat

Chimpanzee social defence against leopards is

uncoordi-nated

mobbing with clubs

as per video (click

to view)

Might deter leopard from returning to tree cache

Not a pride of lions or mob of hyenas on ground

Long periods (∼130–330

ky) of extreme moist-arid variability between 3.0 and 1.5 mya.Possible modes of adaptationFail to track (= extinction)Adaptive change to track (shift niche)Increase versatility (expand niche)Genetic adaptationSlow & ponderous (intergenerational)One thing or the other not bothCultural adaptationFast (intragenerational)Cultural knowledge pertains to group only (→ group selection)Group knowledge easily lost (depending on genetically determined capacities, group size, structure, and dynamics)Culturally transmitted tool using/making knowledge was grade-shiftingSavanna ape inherited limited capacity to transmit cultural knowledge and existing culture of simple tool-making and use from CLCA

Impacts of environmental change and variability in E African Rift (Olduvai, etc.) between 3.0 and 1.5 mya

20

Potts, R. 2013. Environmental and

behavioral

evidence pertaining to the evolution of early

Homo.

Current Anthropology 53(S6), S229-S317 -

http://tinyurl.com/mcnje6c

Comparative anatomy and biology: climatic pulse rapidly changing ecology selects for increasing brain capacity

Brain capacities correlate with cognitive capacities (many works over many years). Major climatic pulse (expansion/contraction E African Rift lakes) causes rapid ecological variation ~1.8 mya Proliferation hominin speciesInitial colonization of Eurasia (Dmanisi)Rapid increase in brain capacity in H. erectus (broadly defined)Acheulean hand axes begin to appear around 1.7 mya.

21

(

Dmanisi

)

Shultz, S., Maslin, M. 2013. Early human speciation, brain expansion and dispersal influenced by African climate pulses.

PLoS

ONE 8(10): e76750. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0076750 -

http://tinyurl.com/m38zfke

22

With

thorn branches, spears and stone

butchering tools, hominins became top carnivores on the savanna

Oldowan tools

made & used

from 2.6 to 1.7 mya

Hominin

teeth

can’t tear

skin

and

flesh of

large prey

Anvils & hammer stones used to

access marrow from scavenged

carcasses

Kanzi

the

bonobo

learned to

break stones & use flakes as cutting tools

Early hominin culture assimilates knowledge that broken hammer stones can be used to cut skin & ligaments for butchering

large prey before

lost to competing carnivores and scavengers

More sophisticated

Acheulean hand choppers & other tools

made & used from 1.7 mya to 0.1 mya

facilitated butchering but required greater knowledge & dexterity to make

Note

exceedingly slow rate of technological change

Suggests

neural/social/linguistic

capacity to accumulate knowledge of complex

technologies was stringently limited for most of hominin history

Large carnivores included lions,

leopards, three sabertooth cats, large bear, bear-sized wolverine, several largehyenids, wild dogs, etc.3 mya aggressive scavenging of kills reducing food supply for some carnivores causing local extinctions.2 mya active hunting of large mammalprey using spears + Oldowan butchering tools further reduces carnivore resources.1.8 mya hominins in Olduvai Gorge were top carnivores selectively hunting prime quality bovid prey (Bunn & Pickering 2010; Bunn & Gurtov 2013).By 1.8 mya carnivorous hominins extended to Dmanisi, Georgia (Hemmer et al. 2011; Carrion et al. 2011), and from there quickly spread across Asia and into Europe (as H. erectus)

By 3 to 2 mya hominin competition and dominance of other carnivores begins to reduce overall carnivore diversity in E. Africa

23

Werdelin

& Lewis 2013

.

Genetic enhancements to meet increasing cognitive needsCapacity for geographical (mental map) and natural history knowledgeUnderstand time & process to plan & coordinate huntingBetter neuromuscular control and knowledge of resources & planning for tool making & useIncreased capacity for teaching & learningFacilitate master-apprentice and other social relationshipsShare and direct attention to critical aspects of process & techniqueUse gesture, mime and acting-out (dance)Cultural accumulation of knowledge begins to replace genetic change as most important adaptive mechanismKnowledge accumulation still limitedCapacity to remember Slow genetic evolution of more memory capacityTechnological innovations may be lost & reinvented several times & may take hundreds of thousands of years to be consolidated

2 – 1.5 mya selective environment for hominin carnivores affecting genetic & cultural changes

24

25

Fire users, keepers, & makers

Opportunistic

users >

3

mya ?

Savanna

burns naturally every 2-5 years

Knowing that

just burnt

savanna is a good source of high cuisine

roast meat much more digestible than raw

Roasting makes inedible/indigestible

nuts, roots & tubers

edible

Fire keepers > 1

mya

(Rolland

2004

;

Twomey

2011

)

Keepers much better off (cooking, warmth, deter predators)

Loss of fire potentially catastrophic to group

Maintaining fire requires social

coordination

Know

how to feed and keep a fire (process knowledge

)

Know how to move fire to a new place before fuel resource used up (anticipation, planning, techniques)

Keeping

the fire is a driver to increase cognitive capacity

Fire makers ~ 0.5 – 0.4 mya

Knowing how to start a fire without a natural source

Striking a spark (what rocks, what tinder?)

Using a fire stick to create friction embers

26

Cognitive skills needed to accumulate knowledge for niche expansion (Vaesen 2012; Sterelny 2011, 2012a, b)

Hand-eye

coordination

- fine

motor control needs more neurons

Causal

reasoning

- time-binding; understand

goals, actions, and consequences

Function representation

-

associate

particular tools

with

particular jobs

Natural history intelligence

- conscious attention to understanding the behaviors of predators, prey, fire, other changing aspects of environment

Executive control

– anticipating, deciding & planning; not just reacting

Social

intelligence

- extended childhood, social

learning (imitation not emulation

), understanding

of intentions of

others (mirror neurons?), focused teaching & learning, a

pprenticeship

Intragroup

coordination

Intergroup collaboration

Language

Red oval =

Broca’s AreaStout, D., Chaminade, T. 2012. Stone tools, language and the brain in human evolution. Philosophical Transactions Royal Society B 367, 75-87 - http://tinyurl.com/kpotjro.

Triadic niche construction: neural/cognitive/ecological (Iriki & Taoka 2012)Brocas’ AreaExpanded area of brain involved in speech and fine motor controlIdentifiable in hominin endocasts – H. habilis like modern humans compared to apes.Mirror System Hypothesis (MSH) proposes primitive action-matching system evolved to support imitation, pantomime, manual ‘protosign’ and ultimately vocal languageFOXP2 and other speech related genetic changes affected Broca’s area in our commonancestors with Neanderthals and DenisovansFood processing technologies make food moredigestible enabling natural selection to divert metabolic resources from the digestive system to development of larger brainsLarger brains support increased cognitive capacity: memory, mental maps, greater social complexity, better neuromuscular coordination

Genetic & physiological enhancements facilitating the emergence of language

27

Language and the emergence of hominin groups as higher order autopoietic systems

Language - phenomenon of groups not individuals (one hand clapping)Drivers for the evolution of a faculty of languageCoordinates individuals’ involvement in group activities and societyTransmits essential cultural knowledge (heritage)Common language, cultural norms & xenophobia determine group boundariesCultural knowledge propagated among individuals between generations by language determines group success on the adaptive landscapeAn entity is autopoietic if it exhibits all the criteria (Varela et al. 1974)Bounded (groups separated socially by cultural differences and breeding systems)Complex (groups formed by multiple individuals playing different roles in group)Mechanistic (interactions of group individuals determine group functions & activities)Self-referential (group identity determined by culturally transmitted knowledge)Self-producing (group retains its continuity beyond the lifetimes of single individuals through individual reproduction and recruitment combined with indoctrination in and transmission of accumulated cultural knowledge from one generation to the next)Autonomous (group manages its own survival and continuity through knowledge-based interactions of its individual members)Autopoietic entities represent units of selectionPre-linguistic groups probably qualified as autopoietic – but group identity and adaptive variation greatly strengthened by language-assisted cultural accumulation

28

Development of increasingly complex stone tools (Stout

2011) correlates with larger brain capacity and language development. Even with language, knowledge is limited by what can be learned, remembered, and passed on by single individuals.By < 500 kya, pace of change in the capacity to deal with multiple complexities is too fast for genetic adaptation < 50 kya increasing rate of change suggests major innovation to support accumulation of much larger volumes of knowledge.

What enabled increasing tool complexity?

29

Acheulian

Oldowan

Introduction & exponential

growth of new technologies

Modified from

Krubitzer

&

Stolzenberg

(2014)

“All modern human populations have language, and there is no difference in language capacity between living human populations. Parsimony implies that the most recent common ancestor of all modern humans had language, and had all the biological prerequisites for language” (Johansson 2013).

The common distribution of language proxies across human and

neanderthals

in genomic, paleoanthropological, and paleoarcheological contexts show that human, Denisovan and Neanderthal common ancestor had a capacity for modern language, speech and culture (Dediu & Levinson 2013, etc.)

30

Krubitzer, L., Stolzenberg, D.S. 2014. The evolutionary masquerade: genetic and epigeneticcontributions to the neocortex. Current Opinion in Neurobiology 24, 157-165.Dediu, D., Levinson, S.C. 2013. On the antiquity of language: the reinterpretation of Neandertal linguistic capacities and its consequences. Frontiers in LanguageScience DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00397/Johansson, S. 2013. The talking neanderthals: what do fossils, genetics, and archeology say? Biolinguistics 7, 35-74.

Sch

öningen& Bilzingsleben

Indicators for the emergence of modern cognition in Neanderthals &

H. sapiens

Two extraordinary snapshots imply that linguistic capabilities already existed 400 kya in LCA Neanderthal / H. sapiens

Schöningen II (single-use hunting camp 380 kya – Thieme 2005)Captured, butchered and processed at least 20 horsesTools made elsewhere include 9 wood lances left (ritually?) with herd remains4 hearths, associated tools & evidence for spit-roasting, smoking and dryingEarliest evidence for compound toolsBilzingsleben (base camp 370 kya - Mania & Mainia 2005)3 x 3-4 m dia. huts with hearths all oriented against windPrey included fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, elephants, rhinoceros, horses, bison, deer, pigs, lions, bears, wolves, hyenas, foxes, badgers, and martensSpit roasting & smoking for preservationEvidence for making & use of wide variety of stone and bone toolsPaved area with artifacts suggestive of ritual activities.ImplicationsLong-range planning (harvesting and preserving; anticipating the need)Planning and coordinating cooperative hunting of large, dangerous animalsWide range of natural history, tool-making and food-processing knowledgeRitual activities/thinkingDiversity and complexity of cultural knowledge for inferred activities beyond the capacity to communicate without language.

31

The Middle Stone Age (Africa) / Middle Paleolithic (Europe) was a post Acheulian technological plateau (~ 300 → ~ 50 kya)

Primary references: Current Anthropology, Vol. 54, No. S8, Wenner-Gren Symposium: Alternative Pathways to Complexity: Evolutionary Trajectories in the Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age (December 2013 – free to the Web)Acheulian tools continued to be used by other hominins (e.g., H. erectus)Technology variable through MSA / MP but no clear temporal trendsSporadic development and loss of complex technologiesOperational chains of limited lengthDespite major ecological shifts between glacial and inter-glacial there is no evidence for permanent settlements or cultural shifts from nomadic hunting and gathering.Little technological difference between Neanderthal/Denisovan/archaic H. sapiens in Europe, anatomically modern sapiens in South Africa, and AM sapiens in the Levant (eastern Med.) early colonization ~ 100 kya, and permanent colonization and spread to Eurasia ~ 70 kyaPopulations limited in size to small bands, with evidence that Neanderthals & Denisovans passed through more severe genetic bottlenecks than sapiensEven with language, the capacity for cultural memory was limited

32

Slowly increasing pace of

hominin technological innovation in the East African homeland

Even given the existence of a faculty of language, the pace of technological innovation was very slow before 100 kya.Use of fire in making fineblades and points, or use of ochre and beads may have been developed & lost several times before beingfixed in cultureEven where ideas can be expressed in words, an individual’s ability to remember detail is limited.Where population is divided into small groups any knowledge not securely acquired by the nextgeneration is lost

33

McBrearty

& Brooks

2000

Something changed ~ 70-50 kya that enabled H. sapiens to increase its cultural capacity to store & transmit knowledge

Mnemonics – increasing capacity for accumulating knowledge in primary oral culture differs from typographically based culturePrimary sources for understanding mental techniques used in primary oral cultures to accurately memorize and recall large and complex bodies of information:Ong, W.J. 1982. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. Routledge, London [eBook free download from http://tinyurl.com/ledoljk]Kelly, L. 2012. When Knowledge Was Power. PhD Thesis, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Latrobe University, Bundoora, Vic., Australia [embargoed until Cambridge University Press book is published - see http://www.lynnekelly.com.au/Lynne_Kelly/Research.html]Techniques - think memorably: express knowledge in rhythm and rhyme with common formulas and phrases, link breathing and gesture, act out, associate with song and dance, organize by intrinsic logic, etc.Master technique: the method of loci (see next slide)May increase individual memory capacity by 10 to 100-fold or moreUse at group level to preserve and transmit cultural knowledgeCultural capacity depends on group size – larger groups allow formation of subgroups (i.e., “guilds”) to manage specialized bodies of knowledge

34

Method of Loci builds on the natural rhythms and progression of life

Memorable events happen in time and space (specific locus in 3D space) Innate way to organize memory probably common to all “intelligent” animalsFocus on the space-time locus to retrieve memories of circumstances and events that happened at that locusSonglines: hunter gatherers learned to consciously index geographic, resource & natural history knowledge against tracks in the existing landscape where it is relevant. Other knowledge may be indexed against loci on other shared lines (e.g., stars in the night sky) or with stories associated with landscape features, etcMethod of loci uses an ordered sequence of memorable loci as indexing points along existing or imagined space-time linesAssociates memorably expressed snippets of knowledge with particular loci in the line Other mnemonic techniques make snippets memorable (e.g., imagery, rhythm, rhyme, oration, song, dance)Group rehearsal and repetition strengthens memory traces Group sharing adds redundancy and corrects errors in individual memoryIn larger populations subgroups can maintain specialized knowledge

35

Becoming settled – surmounting the knowledge capacity of nomadic life in the post-glacial era

Nomads limited to technology they can carry or fabricate on demandAccumulating technological knowledge enables more effective use of smaller geographic areas – larger populations accumulate more knowledgeBecomes practical to establish core living areas with permanent goods & structures (e.g., specialized tools, houses, and structures for cultural activities and processing and storage of food and other property)Reduced contact with tracks in the broad landscape combined with need to manage more and more specialized knowledge of technology drives development of new and archeologically significant mnemonic systemsSolution: When songlines no longer suffice, build compact monumental landscapes that can be traversed sequentially (Kelly 2012 - e.g., Stonehenge, Poverty Point, Chaco Canyon Kivas, etc.)Early site: Göbekli Tepe ~ 11 kya southern Turkey3 ky before the agricultural revolutionMany other sites from primary oral cultures moving from nomadic hunting and gathering to settled life have similar monumental structures

36

Mnemonics, settlement, the agricultural revolution and increasing cultural complexity

Current Anthropology 52(S4), Wenner-Gren Symposium: “The Origins of Agriculture: New Data, New Ideas” (October 2011) reviews in detail the archeological record of cultural & demographic transitions from nomadic hunting & gathering to formation of agricultural townsWith settlement, nomadic groups become territorial villagesThe autopoietic entity becomes a socio-technical construct comprised of people, their linguistically mediated communication networks, their knowledge, their technologies and their built environmentPositive feedback drives ever-increasing growth rate of cultural knowledge accumulation for ever-increasing ecological hegemony over environmental resourcesAccumulating cultural knowledge enables more efficient/effective control of local resourcesSurplus resources enables population growth in turn providing more capacity for cultural memoryDevelopment of ever more sophisticated mnemonic devicesPopulation growth enables more specialization of crafts, trades and guilds able to accumulate still more varied and detailed knowledge of the world

37

Ecological grade shifts result in demographic transitions increasing socio-cultural/economic complexity

Mobile hunter-gatherers (~15 – 20 adults in group – say 2-4 families)Part-time tool-makers & apprentices (specific resource and processes knowledge)Organized hunting partiesLeader/organizers + possibly specialized team membersGeographic & natural history knowledge target prey and dangersSkinning, butchering, processingGatherers use specialized geographic & natural history knowledge to find resourcesTemporary shelter construction, child-care, fire tending, food processingExtended networks for additional mating opportunities, knowledge exchange & barterSettled foragers (~ 40 adults in community – say 8 families)Specialized tools that can be kept on hand, perhaps leading to full-time specializationWide ranging hunting parties transport butchered products back to home-baseLocally intensive gathering and harvesting with processing and storageConstruction & maintenance of permanent shelters & specialized structuresNeed to protect valuable “capital” (community / personal ”property”)“Tribal” networks & mnemonic systems for preserving & exchanging knowledgeProduction of specialized goods and surplus resources encourages formal barter economySocial norms and knowledge specialties common to interrelated communities (“tribe”)Development of specialized “cultic” sites on neutral territory for rehearsal, standardization, and sharing of various bodies of knowledge

38

The Agricultural Revolution extending human control over animal and plant metabolism

Major techno-ecological transitionsHunting → herding & corralling → husbandry, dairying, cheese-making, tanning, animal power & transportHarvesting, storage, milling, baking & brewing → planting → tilling & irrigating → hydraulic engineeringStone & mud construction → brick making & firing → ceramics, pottery & metallurgy → structural engineeringDemographic revolution – egalitarian communities become hierarchically organized tribal regions and towns (encompassing dozens to hundreds of families)Population growth and technological innovation leads to proliferating specialization & restriction of life roles: farmers, pastoralists, despots, leaders, warriors, administrators, traders, priests & healers, educators, masons, artisans (e.g., tool-makers, potters, tanners, bakers, candlestick-makers, smiths, armorers), etc.Specializations dependent on knowledge passed down via family specialization, confraternities, and guildsManagement of surpluses, specialized production, and trading leads to development of formal economies and despotic/priestly statesRevolutionary emergence of new mnemonic and knowledge management technologies to release cognitive demands for memorization for thinking and doingIndexing living memory vs representing and preserving knowledge with objective symbols Reduction of the monumental landscape onto distinctive paths and loci sculpted/fabricated into hand-held objectsRepresenting reality with symbolic tokens:Counting and recording, the clerical accountant, taxing and contractingLogographic writing (cuneiform), scribesPhonetic alphabetsTablets, scrolls, libraries, & officesIncreasing socio-economic complexity, economic speciation, and emergence of knowledge-based autopoietic entities at intermediate levelsReligious orders, trades, guilds, factories, chartered companies, societies

39

The Industrial Revolution, the replacement of human/animal motive power, and the externalization of technological memory

(560 ya) The rise of printing for the general recording, replication and transmission of knowledgeTechnologies: papermaking, type founding & setting, printing, post-press, distributing, indexing, book making, curating, etc.Scholarly access to large volumes of general, historical, and specialist knowledge encouraging the deliberate accumulation of knowledgeRenaissance, Reformation, & (~400 ya) Scientific RevolutionPublication & peer reviewScientific societiesLibraries & universitiesIncreasing literacy and access to technical knowledge fuels innovation(~ 300 ya) animal and human motive power replaced with inorganic sourcesMass production of many things, including booksGeneral literacy, social upheaval, dislocation and gradually rising affluenceEcological hegemony over land and seaExponentially accumulating knowledgeEmergence of knowledge-based economic organizations as autopoietic

40

The Microelectronics Revolution and the increasing externalization and convergence of individual and social cognition

~ 150 ya mechanical and electro/mechanical technologies for corporate/scientific number crunching & data processing~ 50 ya birth of electronic digital processinginvention of transistorized logic circuits~ 43 ya invention of integrated circuit microprocessors and automatic fabrication (Intel 4004 1971)Moore’s Law & the still continuing hyperexponential growth of processing powerExtending and replacing more and more human cognition~ 35 ya automated processing, storage, distribution and retrieval of personal and corporate knowledge. (Wordstar 1979)~ 22 ya networking knowledge with the World Wide Web (Tim Berners-Lee 1992)Universal access to the world knowledge base~ 20 ya Mosaic Netscape Navigator 1994~ 16 ya free open-source browsers Mozilla Firefox 1998Indexing knowledge for retrieval~ 14 ya one billion web pages indexed, more than two billion by end of 2000Last decade provides instant web search, access & retrieval of virtually the entire scientific & technical literature via Google Scholar/research library subscriptionsMajority of all English language book titles scanned, indexed, and available (if out of copyright), with smaller fractions non-English books processed.Networking brains directly – towards a singularity or global mind?

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Interconnecting minds and cognitive processes via the cloud“social computing” and convergent technology

Technological convergence – mobile phone to acognitive prosthesisEmail: ARPANET (1971), TCP/IP (1982), SMS text (2002), Gmail (2005)Internet telephony: Voice over IP (1994), Skype (2003)Media: iTunes (2000), Amazon Kindle (2007), Google Play (2008)Still and video imaging: Picassa/iPhoto (2002); Flikr photo/video (2004); YouTube (2005); Panoramio (geolocated photos converging with Google Earth/Google Maps – 2005)Cloud storage: Napster (1999), BitTorrent (2001), Amazon S3 (2006), DropBox (2008)Business/Office tools: Google Docs/Drive (2007)Geospatial: Google Earth/Maps 2005Social: chat rooms (1980); Groups/Listservers (1992), LinkedIn (2003), Facebook (2004), Twitter (2006)Knowledge construction/sharing/broadcasting: Wikis (1994), Wikipedia (2002), Blogs/Wordpress (2003)Human-computer interfacingHead-mounted displays (1960’s)Google Project Glass (2012)Implanted/embodied human-machine interfacesCochlear implants/Bionic EarsRetinal implants/Bionic EyesDirect brain stimulationBrain simulation and emulation

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