Part 4 of 5 - The Day We Learned to Think - BBC Horizon

Understanding of humans' earliest past often comes from studying fossils. They tell us much of what we know about the people who lived before us. There is one thing fossils cannot tell us; at what point did we stop living day-to-day and start to think symbolically, to represent ideas about our environment and how we could change it? At a dig in South Africa the discovery of a small piece of ochre pigment, 70,000 years old, has raised some very interesting questions.

"We see features that are almost identical to living humans"

Prof Jeffrey Laitman, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) emerged in Africa roughly 100,000 years ago. We know from fossil evidence that Homo sapiens replaced other hominids around them and moved out of Africa into Asia and the Middle East, reaching Europe 40,000 years ago.

Prof Richard Klein believes art is a landmark in human evolution. Unquestionable art that's widespread and common suggests you're dealing with people just like us. No other animals, after all, are able to define a painting as anything other than a collection of colours and shapes. This ability is unique to humans.

Other scientists agree. They believe art defines humans as behaviourally modern, and its beginning must coincide with the ability to speak and use language. If someone has the imagination to devise a shared way to describe their environment using art then it seems inconceivable that they could not possess language and speech. The search for the moment our ancestors became behaviourally just like us is also the hunt for the first evidence of art.

Full Description: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2003/learnthink.shtml

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• BBC
• Horizon
• Language
• Art
• Think
• Human
• Evolution
• Science
• Revolution
• Paintings
• Ochre
• Vocal
• Intelligence

[plspirit81]

@luckylangerie although it seems nowadays a lot of people lose the ability to think

[espnmarshall]

@shakyl008 Would said funky aliens have a mothership connection?

[KatherineJane001]

Looks like Backgammon :)

[gerrymoran1]

Does anyone know the music which starts at 4:40? It's very similar to A Canterbury Tale by Dreadzone

[smawshot]

What really gets me is that (and maybe I am speculating or imagining or whatever) is that it shows a primeval expression of geometry (hence a mathematic) being expressed. A sort of drawing board that would later be built upon. With that, it's not merely simple thought but a higher form of thought, exploration, logic, and experimentation of sorts being practiced. Like a first blueprint for what we have advanced to a great degree over the ages.

[luckylangerie]

Thinking Peeepel ..

like UZ

[RJL738]

Alot of this is just speculation, anyway l

[erikwens]

@shakyl008: Certainly their language was more civilised than yours.

[shakyl008]

what if we weren't touched by God, reather by funky space aliens? wud that blow ur mind :P