WEBVTT

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So, we're here in the syner of technology

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and I just wanted to ask a simple question.

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What was the greates technological

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discovery ever made the basis for all

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subsecuent technology,

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and when was it made?

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The gratest technological brakethrough

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of human beings is language.

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invented two million years ago

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in the first and gratest information age

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by Homo erectus: mom and dad.

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Homo erectus was one of the most successful

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crearures who ever walked the earth.

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The lived on this planet for nearly

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two million years.

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We have so far lived on this planet

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for a certain two hundred thousand,

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perhabs as many as five hundred thousand.

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So, we haven't lived the quarter

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of the time that Homo erectus lived

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on this planet.

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Homo erectus was a marvelous creature.

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Had the gratest brain the wolrd

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have ever seen, maybe the universe

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had ever seen.

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The range of size of the Homo erectus brain

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was about 950 CC, 75% of the size

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of an adult Homo sapiens male

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and roughly in the range of many

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Homo sapiens females, and that proofs

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to us that size doesn't matter.

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The Homo erectus brain and body

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were both phenomenal.

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That was the first body Homo erectus

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stood about as tall as we do.

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They were probably aorund 150 pounds

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and they were the first creatures

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in the history of the universe capable of

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persistance hunting or bipedal gate

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enables us to run long distances and

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cool down more efficiently than quadrupeds.

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So, Homo erectus was actually able to

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chase down its prey until the prey

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either died of heat exhaustion or

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Homo erectus beat it to dead with

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a stone axe or club.

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Homo erectus was a marvelous creature,

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and they had many accomplishments.

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Homo erectus made a variety of tools

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starting with the Olduwan tools and,

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they kept these tools and they

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transported these tools and

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they improved these tools, so they had

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an upgrade: Acheulean tools

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and they upgraded this to Levallois tools

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and each tool was better than the one

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before, but they weren't limited

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to stone tools.

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Homo erectus also made spears wooden

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tools we have found hundreds of thousands

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of year old spears, and they made

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two kinds of sprears. They made spears

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for throwing and spreasr for thrusting.

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What does spears for thrusting mean?

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It means you're a 5 ft 8 to 6 ft 1

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Homo erectus male 150 lb

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and you run up and stick that spear

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into a mastodon.

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These were first creatures, these were

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brave creatures and they were

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extremely intelligent creatures.

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So, tools were one of the great

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accomplishments that lets us know

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what kind brain they were developing.

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They also had representations of reality.

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This is a 250,000 year old

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partially naturally form and

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partially artificially form by humans,

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by Homo erectus venus. It's called

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the Venus of Berakhat Ram,

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and there's some evidence said

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it was dyed red on certain parts.

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A shell found on the island of a found

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in Java, with engravings on the shell

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by Homo erectus.

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Homo erectus wasn't simply a toolmaker.

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they were boat makers.

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They traveled the oceans

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2 million years ago.

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How do we know this?

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Well, the firts island that we find

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evidence, is the island of Flores in

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Indonesia, which would have been about

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a 24 mile boat trip visible from land

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about the size of the English chanel,

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exept that Flores was then and now

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surrounded the most treacherous

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and strongest oceans currents

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in the world.

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They could't swim to Flores, they got

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there by boat, and, this is actually

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the island of Flores, and, it doesn't,

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you know, I don't think Homo erectus

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look quite like that.

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But, archaeologists had actually

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tried to simulate the voyages of

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homo erectus by making graphs,

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similar to the kinds of graphs that

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Homo erectus would have made.

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We know because of the amout of islands

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that we find colonies of Homo erectus,

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that their getting to these islands

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was more than coincidence.

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We know by the size of the colonies

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the must have had there that multiple

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individuals had to arrive around the same

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time to start these colonies, and,

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we know, therefore, that they

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had the plan.

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So, one was Flores, another was

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Socotra. Then and now, 150 miles

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into de ocean, from the nearest land,

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where we find Homo erectus colonies.

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That requires imagination, that sailing

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to something in exploration, and

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Homo erectus seems to do this.

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So, there's also evidence that

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Homo erectus head colonies on Crete.

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So, Homo erectus was a seafarer,

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Homo erectus was a toolmaker,

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Homo erectus was

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a very inteligent person, but

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they did more than this.

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Homo erectus also traveled the

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world by land. Homo erectus evolved

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1.9 million years ago by 1.7 million

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years ago, which is not very long.

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They were already in Beijin,

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they were in Indonesia, they were

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in the middle east, they were in Europe.

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Homo erectus traveled, I won't be

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sorprised when tne newspaper finaly

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anounces that we have evidence of

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Homo erectus in California, because

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if they could walk to Beijin in a shot

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period of time, It was just a little

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hop skip and a jump up across the Bering

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strait down into the new world,

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maybe they did, maybe they didn't.

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But their ability showed that they were

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capable of a tremendous amount.

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So, if we, now, it is not all good news

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there were some deficiencies.

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Homo erectus had the vocal apparatus

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of a gorilla. They couldn't have made

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all the sounds that we made.

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They would have had a range of sound

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more like what a gorilla could make.

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Is that a big deal when it comes

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to language? Well, no, it isn't.

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There are many languages today

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that have less than twelve sounds,

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here's one: (speaking in Pirahã)

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That's on of the languages I've worked on

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in the Amazon over the past four years:

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Pirahã, and it only has ten sounds if

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you are a wonam, and eleven sounds if

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you are a man.

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And with eleven sounds you can produce

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a fully functioning human language,

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so, was erecrus capable of eleven sounds?

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They didn't even need to be capable of

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eleven sounds. You can type anything you

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can communicate in English into your

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computer. You can type it in Microsoft,

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Word, or whatever software, or whatever

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program that you use, and when you do that,

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How many letters does a computer use?

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Well, ultimately a computer only uses

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two letters, two sounds: 0 and 1.

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And, wtih those sounds you can communicate

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anything.

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So erectus, theoretically only needed to

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make two sounds to communicate.

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Our ancestors were the first and only

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talking gorillas, with the anatomy that

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they had. Their brains not only were

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smaller, they were somewhat slower

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than ours by the evidence, their

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childhood development was faster tha ours,

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which is disadvantage cognitively

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because, our children have more time to

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develop, I think is about 30 years now.

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And they are able to put in the place

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all sorts of cognitive mechanisms,

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when I tell this joke in college, nobody

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laughs, but, we know.

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So, Homo erectus had andvantage and

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disadvantage, but the most important thing

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is that: none of the disadvantages

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would have kept it from language and the

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accomplishments we see.

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So, rigth now scientist are exavating a

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Homo erectus village about 750,000

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years old and guests at off to Yakov,

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in modern day Israel, and we find that

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this village is organized hierarchically.

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There's a section of the village for

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processing animal products,

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a section of the village for processing

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plant products, another section of

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the village where we find evidence of

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the habitation. So, they not only built

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villages, thuy built them in a structured

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matter. So, they were capable of

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hierarchical thought, they were capable of

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planning, they were capable of imagination.

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What makes language?

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What was lackingo for them to

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have language?

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A language is just, in essence, two things:

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Symbols and grammar.

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And how many symbols do you need?

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and, how many grammar do you need?

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What's a symbol, first of all.

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Charles Sanders Peirce, a philosopher

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from United States, who lived over

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a hundred years ago, defined three kinds

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of signs: Indexes, which are physically

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connected to what they represent.

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So, you go outside, you smell smoke,

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you know there's a fire.

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Smoke is an index of fire.

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You see a footprint, that's an index.

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And the next sign, all animals need signs.

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Our five senses evolved for us to be

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able to read indexes.

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without indexes and the ability to read

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them, we can't function in the world.

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The next kind of signs is an icon,

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there's not a physical conetcion, but

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there's a physical resemblance.

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The figure of Berekhat Ram, that I showed

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the venus earlier, that's an icon.

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The Mona lisa is an icon.

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The cross in Christianity started off

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is an icon and has become a symbol.

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So, you get this.

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So, what is a symbol then?

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The symbol is conventionally a sign that

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is conventionally, or culturally connected

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to its meaning.

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So, take the number 4: F-o-u-r. or hold up

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my fingers four.

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That means what?

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It means a cardinality of four,

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we have to keep talking in English.

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But, four is a cultural determent form,

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and a cultural determent meaning.

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Not all languages have mathematics.

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Piraha, for example doesn't have even

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the number one, there are not

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mathematical concepts in that

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language what so ever.

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So, math is a cultural discovery,

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if not a cultural construct, and

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no everyone has math in that sense.

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So, the symbols from math are culturally

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determined.

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Symbols are culturally determined.

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The next thing we need to have a language,

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and here's the fascinating fact.

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When Peirce said that indexes come fist

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and more simple, and then icons,

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and then symbols.

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He inadvertently, indirectly predicted

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excatly what we find in the archaeological

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record.

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So, indexes all creatures have, those of

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5 billion yeras old or however long

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life been on earth closer to 4 billion.

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But, when did the first icon, the first

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image appear in the archaeological record?

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Well, we have to go back 3 million years,

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which is not that far back to

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Australopithecus africanus.

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And, we find in a cave of Australopithecus

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to Makapansgat cave of Australopithecus

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in South Africa, a small little 2 inch

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by 3 inch stone