EFFECT
|
Description
|
Capacity
|
A+RELATIONSHIP+B
COGNITION |
I have models in my mind of the dominance
relationships between other individuals in the group. As there is a stable
linear hierarchy in the group, the relationships are largely invariant, so
the binding between the imaged individuals and their relationship with each
other is strong and largely fixed. |
Linear Social Cognition |
A- |
I have models in my mind about the relationships
between other individuals in the group. The reverse- |
Social Cognition |
A- |
A- |
Protolanguage 2 |
A- |
By tagging a received A- |
Identifying Opinion |
A- |
I am expressing my A- |
Awareness of Own Reputation |
ABSENT REFERENCE |
I am referring to items and events which are
within my experience but not within yours. You have to
accept their reality to me to be able to interpret my utterance. |
Awareness of the Unseen |
ABSTRACTION |
I have to be able to see
another individual as separate from my relationships with that other, so that
I can model the relationship between that other and third parties. |
Social Cognition |
AWARENESS OF SELF |
I am a third party in the modelling of others, so
A- |
Awareness of Self |
AWARENESS OF SELFNESS |
By modelling myself as a third party, I am able to see my self from an
external perspective. This carries with it all the concomitant advantages and
disadvantages of Machiavellian Intelligence, but applied reflexively. |
Egalitarian Awareness |
COMPLEX LANGUAGE 1 |
Neanderthal and Denisovan genes have been
discovered in modern H.sapiens
genomes; which means that we interbred and produced viable offspring which
were able to compete successfully with "pure" H.sapiens.
As communication is such an important marker of a successful H.sapiens, it is very likely
that they had a communication system remarkably similar to our own. |
Complex Language 1 |
COMPLEX LANGUAGE 2 |
Language is, even today, a developing system.
Complex Language 2 (effectively, Complex Language 1 plus recursion)
represents the end of the story being told here, but it should not be seen as
a complete, terminal state for language. |
Complex Language 2 |
DIFFERENTIATION |
The second of the four features of language. The
"atoms" of cognition can have different roles in the construction
of thoughts. In the minimal case of language (as conceived here),
"words" can represent entities or relationships between entities. |
Joint Attention & Deixis |
DISPASSIONATE SELF |
By modelling myself as a third party, I can treat
my self as I treat other third parties. |
Egalitarian Awareness |
EXTRINSIC COMMUNICATION |
A system of communication which allows external
meanings about the world to be shared. These meanings are mostly facts, and
truth- |
Protolanguage 1 |
EXTRINSIC SIGNALLING |
A signalling system where a particular signifier
always signifies the same thing; for example, the
vervet monkey snake, eagle and leopard calls. The signal is made as a response
to a stimulus (the predator has been seen). |
Meaningful Signals |
FIRST PERSON |
Probably the last of the language
"voices" to emerge. Allows me to represent my
self in utterances made to others. |
Projection of Self |
GRAMMATICAL HIERARCHY |
The third of the four features of language. The
"atoms" of cognition can be combined to make composite units which
behave in many ways like "atoms". |
Identifying Opinion |
GRAMMATICALIZATION |
The process of sharing the simplest grammatical
utterances (containing segmentation and differentiation, but not hierarchy or
recursion) creates a condition where the meaning in the shared utterance has to be negotiated between sender and receiver. This
negotiation allows the adoption of new “words”, and new types of words, by
the receiver. It also allows the adoption of new grammatical forms in which
the new types of words are useful. |
Negotiation toward Meaning |
INTRINSIC
COMMUNICATION |
See COMPLEX LANGUAGE 1 |
Complex Language 1 |
JOINT ENTERPRISE |
The capacity to work together on a project that
no single individual could accomplish. |
Joint Ventures |
LARGE BRAINS |
Humans have brains which are large in absolute
terms, remarkably large in comparison to our size, and extremely costly: 20%
of our body's energy intake is used by the brain alone. The reasons for the
existence of this costly organ are key to understanding human evolution. |
Increased Encephalisation |
LARGE SOCIAL GROUPS |
A particular feature of humans is their capacity
to tolerate large groups of conspecifics. This is unusual in nature, and is usually a marker of eusociality. However,
humans have reproductive autonomy, they do not rely on a small group of
fertile relatives to get their genes into the future. |
Larger Social Groups |
LEXIS |
"Words" represent a relationship
between phonology and meaning. In this they differ from "atoms" of
cognition, which have no phonology. |
Semanticity |
MODALITY |
Utterances can have conditionality (they are true
if…); they can have perspective (they are true to some individuals and not
others); they can have fictionality (they are true only within a non- |
Awareness of Own Reputation |
NESTED FUNCTIONALITY |
Being able to nest a function inside another
function is a necessary precursor to recursion. Arithmetic is the process of
nesting quantities inside another quantity (e.g. 1+2=3), and therefore has
nested functionality. This capacity has now been demonstrated in rhesus
macaques. |
Simple Arithmetic |
PHYSICAL CULTURE |
A species which is able to
transmit physical survival skills between individuals by teaching and
learning has a physical culture. The transmission of termite fishing between
female chimpanzees and their offspring is an example of this. |
Teaching and Learning of Skills |
RECURSION (MERGE) |
The fourth of the four features of language.
Hierarchy can occur at multiple levels: composite units can contain composite
units. The Hauser- |
Recursive Social Cognition |
RELATIONSHIP+A COGNITION |
I have models in my mind of my relationships with
other individuals in the group. As the models represent my actual relationships,
the binding between the imaged individual and my relationship with them is
strong and largely fixed. |
Machiavellian Intelligence |
RELATIONSHIP- |
I have models in my mind of my relationships with
other individuals in the group. The reverse- |
Joint Ventures |
SECOND PERSON |
Probably the second of the language
"voices" to emerge. Allows me to represent the receiver as a
special class of "they". This permits
referential dialogue, and "talking to" as an enhancement to
"talking about". |
Recognition of Receiver |
SEGMENTATION |
The first of the four features of language.
Utterances are composed of "atoms" of cognition, they are not
monolithic correspondences between thought and signal. |
Joint Attention and Deixis |
SELF- |
See AWARENESS OF SELF. |
Awareness of Self |
SEMIOTICS |
Joint attention allows the emergence of shared
representation. This, in turn, requires a shared convention of representation. |
Joint Attention and Deixis |
SHARED SOCIAL CALCULUS |
The sharing of A- |
Sharing of Models |
SINGLE- |
I can express simple object- |
Protolanguage 1 |
SOCIAL ARITHMETIC |
See RELATIONSHIP+A COGNITION. |
Machiavellian Intelligence |
SOCIAL CALCULUS |
See A- |
Social Cognition |
SOCIAL CULTURE |
A species which is able to
transmit social conventions between individuals has a social culture. The
social conventions do not directly enhance individual fitness, but they
create social inclusion for the individual, which indirectly enhances their
fitness. Burial practices provide an example of this. |
Affective Teaching and Learning |
TEMPORALITY OF FUTURE |
Being able to reference events which are in the
past, coupled with modality, allows reference to events which are yet to
happen. All that is needed is a social convention to identify future events. |
Awareness of Future Modality |
TEMPORALITY OF PAST |
Being able to refer to events which are not
present means being able to refer to events which are not current. All that
is needed is a social convention of how to differentiate current non- |
Second-order
Unseen Awareness |
THIRD PERSON |
Probably the first of the language
"voices" to emerge. Allows me to represent others as entities,
initially in my cognition and later in my signalling. |
Social Cognition |