9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, we're here in the syner of technology 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and I just wanted to ask a simple question. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 What was the greates technological 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 discovery ever made the basis for all 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 subsecuent technology, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and when was it made? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The gratest technological brakethrough 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of human beings is language. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 invented two million years ago 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in the first and gratest information age 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 by Homo erectus: mom and dad. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Homo erectus was one of the most successful 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 crearures who ever walked the earth. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The lived on this planet for nearly 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 two million years. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We have so far lived on this planet 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 for a certain two hundred thousand, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 perhabs as many as five hundred thousand. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, we haven't lived the quarter 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of the time that Homo erectus lived 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 on this planet. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Homo erectus was a marvelous creature. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Had the gratest brain the wolrd 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 have ever seen, maybe the universe 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 had ever seen. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The range of size of the Homo erectus brain 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 was about 950 CC, 75% of the size 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of an adult Homo sapiens male 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and roughly in the range of many 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Homo sapiens females, and that proofs 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to us that size doesn't matter. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The Homo erectus brain and body 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 were both phenomenal. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That was the first body Homo erectus 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 stood about as tall as we do. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They were probably aorund 150 pounds 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and they were the first creatures 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in the history of the universe capable of 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 persistance hunting or bipedal gate 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 enables us to run long distances and 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 cool down more efficiently than quadrupeds. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, Homo erectus was actually able to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 chase down its prey until the prey 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 either died of heat exhaustion or 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Homo erectus beat it to dead with 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 a stone axe or club. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Homo erectus was a marvelous creature, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and they had many accomplishments. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Homo erectus made a variety of tools 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 starting with the Olduwan tools and, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they kept these tools and they 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 transported these tools and 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they improved these tools, so they had 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 an upgrade: Acheulean tools 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and they upgraded this to Levallois tools 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and each tool was better than the one 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 before, but they weren't limited 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to stone tools. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Homo erectus also made spears wooden 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 tools we have found hundreds of thousands 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of year old spears, and they made 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 two kinds of sprears. They made spears 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 for throwing and spreasr for thrusting. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 What does spears for thrusting mean? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It means you're a 5 ft 8 to 6 ft 1 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Homo erectus male 150 lb 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and you run up and stick that spear 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 into a mastodon. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 These were first creatures, these were 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 brave creatures and they were 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 extremely intelligent creatures. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, tools were one of the great 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 accomplishments that lets us know 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 what kind brain they were developing. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They also had representations of reality. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This is a 250,000 year old 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 partially naturally form and 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 partially artificially form by humans, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 by Homo erectus venus. It's called 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the Venus of Berakhat Ram, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and there's some evidence said 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it was dyed red on certain parts. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 A shell found on the island of a found 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in Java, with engravings on the shell 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 by Homo erectus. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Homo erectus wasn't simply a toolmaker. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they were boat makers. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They traveled the oceans 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 2 million years ago. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 How do we know this? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Well, the firts island that we find 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 evidence, is the island of Flores in 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Indonesia, which would have been about 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 a 24 mile boat trip visible from land 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 about the size of the English chanel, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 exept that Flores was then and now 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 surrounded the most treacherous 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and strongest oceans currents 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in the world. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They could't swim to Flores, they got 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 there by boat, and, this is actually 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the island of Flores, and, it doesn't, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you know, I don't think Homo erectus 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 look quite like that. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But, archaeologists had actually 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 tried to simulate the voyages of 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 homo erectus by making graphs, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 similar to the kinds of graphs that 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Homo erectus would have made. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We know because of the amout of islands 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that we find colonies of Homo erectus, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that their getting to these islands 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 was more than coincidence. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 We know by the size of the colonies 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the must have had there that multiple 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 individuals had to arrive around the same 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 time to start these colonies, and, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we know, therefore, that they 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 had the plan. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, one was Flores, another was 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Socotra. Then and now, 150 miles 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 into de ocean, from the nearest land, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 where we find Homo erectus colonies. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That requires imagination, that sailing 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to something in exploration, and 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Homo erectus seems to do this. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, there's also evidence that 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Homo erectus head colonies on Crete. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, Homo erectus was a seafarer, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Homo erectus was a toolmaker, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Homo erectus was 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 a very inteligent person, but 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they did more than this. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Homo erectus also traveled the 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 world by land. Homo erectus evolved 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 1.9 million years ago by 1.7 million 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 years ago, which is not very long. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They were already in Beijin, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they were in Indonesia, they were 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in the middle east, they were in Europe. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Homo erectus traveled, I won't be 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 sorprised when tne newspaper finaly 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 anounces that we have evidence of 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Homo erectus in California, because 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 if they could walk to Beijin in a shot 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 period of time, It was just a little 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 hop skip and a jump up across the Bering 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 strait down into the new world, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 maybe they did, maybe they didn't. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But their ability showed that they were 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 capable of a tremendous amount. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, if we, now, it is not all good news 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 there were some deficiencies. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Homo erectus had the vocal apparatus 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of a gorilla. They couldn't have made 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 all the sounds that we made. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They would have had a range of sound 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 more like what a gorilla could make. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Is that a big deal when it comes 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to language? Well, no, it isn't. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 There are many languages today 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that have less than twelve sounds, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 here's one: (speaking in Pirahã) 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That's on of the languages I've worked on 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 in the Amazon over the past four years: 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Pirahã, and it only has ten sounds if 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you are a wonam, and eleven sounds if 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you are a man. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And with eleven sounds you can produce 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 a fully functioning human language, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 so, was erecrus capable of eleven sounds? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They didn't even need to be capable of 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 eleven sounds. You can type anything you 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 can communicate in English into your 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 computer. You can type it in Microsoft, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Word, or whatever software, or whatever 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 program that you use, and when you do that, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 How many letters does a computer use? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Well, ultimately a computer only uses 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 two letters, two sounds: 0 and 1. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And, wtih those sounds you can communicate 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 anything. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So erectus, theoretically only needed to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 make two sounds to communicate. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Our ancestors were the first and only 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 talking gorillas, with the anatomy that 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 they had. Their brains not only were 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 smaller, they were somewhat slower 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 than ours by the evidence, their 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 childhood development was faster tha ours, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 which is disadvantage cognitively 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because, our children have more time to 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 develop, I think is about 30 years now. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And they are able to put in the place 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 all sorts of cognitive mechanisms, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 when I tell this joke in college, nobody 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 laughs, but, we know. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, Homo erectus had andvantage and 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 disadvantage, but the most important thing 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 is that: none of the disadvantages 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 would have kept it from language and the 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 accomplishments we see. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, rigth now scientist are exavating a 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Homo erectus village about 750,000 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 years old