Before I can tell you about the three goats I saw, I need to be able to communicate verbally. So naturally, I turned to Wikipedia again to learn about the origin of language. Incidentally, the origin of language is not without controversy. Indeed, as one might expect, theorizing was banned in nineteenth century France. You … Read more
Perhaps this entry should have preceded the prior one, but hey, I am not an expert on communicating this kind of information — yet! In any case, to build a society, ya gotta be able to count things. Setting aside the quantification of so many things, it appears that the most fundamental need for numbers … Read more
In my recollection of high school history classes, human civilization is largely built on agriculture. Once humans had crops, the incentive to live in communities rose significantly. Sure, you can assert that “humans are social beings” (whatever that specifically means), but humans need food to carry out basic biological functions, which is decidedly less abstract. … Read more
Consistent with the name of this site, we have to go through a lot of “then” before we get to “now.” As we recount all the intermediate stages, you will recognize many of the names — at least I did! I will try to hit only the main points (for a while) so we can … Read more
I was just reading about a young woman who was killed by police who’s referenced in a song I’ve heard many times. I know I’ve read about her before, but I couldn’t even tell you when. Reading about her again got me to thinking about the half-life of information salience. Andy Warhol (I think) said … Read more
I would like to retitle this “Lucy” (in quotes). Even the other day when I remembered “Lucy,” I envisioned a caveman being found in the ice. No. That is not what happened with “Lucy.” “Lucy” was an Australopithecus Afarensis found in 1974, in Ethiopia. I just learned that “Lucy” was named after the song “Lucy … Read more
As I mentioned, an accidental discovery around a decade ago led us to discover that the scientific timeline for human development was indeed only a theory. It turned out that crude tools had been used long before Homo Sapiens even existed. So what does this teach us? The impact on our daily lives is pretty … Read more
When I was in school, one day in class, we learned about “Lucy,” some bones and bone fragments from an Australopithecus, discovered in 1974, that comprised and were thought — at the time — to be from the oldest Homo remains. I recently read that tools were discovered a bit over a decade ago that … Read more
A genre that has never really appealed to me is “speculative history.” In my opinion, that is a recipe for disaster, cuz you’re magnifying the odds of misremembering some settled detail. As an aside, I remember a kid in middle school reading a book where these very photogenic tough guys (at least, this is what … Read more
I am writing this from the Phanerozoic eon, and you are presumably reading it from the Phanerozoic eon, as well. When describing geological time (and writing pop songs), different terms are used to describe different scales. For example, an eon is the largest unit and contains all the others, such as era, period, epoch, and … Read more