In the previous lecture, we discussed the notions of pattern and principle. We are inclined to assume that the underlying principle is an explanation of the pattern.
However, it is another description of the pattern with the advantage, that yo can use it to predict new patterns.
A second important issue is how we handle the WHY - question. To keep the discussion clear we have to watch out for confusion.
WHY did you do that? THE CAUSE: because I am hopelessly in love with you. Clear hormones at work here.
THE PURPOSE: I just wanted to get your attention. You see, we constantly have to check whether we are questioning a cause or a goal, a purpose.
In this project we assume, that the search for patterns is as old as humanity itself and probably even older.
The perception of animals must be based to a large extent on pattern recognition. One pattern means ..... there is prey, the other ... danger!
More than 2.5 million years ago, the homo habilis started making increasingly complex stone tools.
And about 500,000 years ago, Homo erectus scratched a geometric zigzag pattern on a shell, the meaning of which is unclear.
The control of fire also dates from the same time. We are then in the Paleolithic, the Old Stone Age, which runs from about 2.5 million years ago to 12,000 years ago,
when agriculture and cattle breeding began, and the New Stone Age, or Neolithic, began.
While Homo erectus had spread from Africa across Europe and Asia more than a million years ago, Homo sapiens hid in a remote corner of Africa.
About 70,000 years ago, this "wise humanoid" also began to populate the other continents.
About this time, something special happened: the homo sapiens displayed a burst of creativity in all areas of pattern-seeking.
We see this in the form of the many systematic cave paintings, the registration of the phases of the moon, the production of ever more refined tools and the development of a proto-writing.
Some historians speak of a cognitive revolution in the late Paleolithic. What exactly happened during this cognitive revolution is unclear,
as is the answer to the question of whether we should not speak of development rather than a revolution.
But it is undeniable that the cognitive development of homo sapiens gained momentum then, and that it was crucial to the history of knowledge.
At the end of the Paleolithic, of the many human species, only the Homo sapiens remain, with a last remnant of Neanderthals leaving the field some 34,000 years ago.
And with that begins our history of knowledge.
Thank you for your attention again.....
The Discussion
[13:22] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): Thank you Herman
[13:22] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ㋡
[13:22] Lady Jane Grey (theiarhea): ㋡
[13:23] herman Bergson: The question that fascinates me the most is this cognitive revolution....or more....the moment that the homo sapiens became self conscious.....
[13:24] oola Neruda: it is interesting to read the different "interpretations: of archeologists when they dig up tools, items, and, especially, discover the cave paintings
[13:24] herman Bergson: Somewhere in evolution an organism said to himself/herself...HERE I AM
[13:25] herman Bergson: It is a history in itself oola....in 1878 when they discovered such cave paintings archeologists didn't believe they were more than 35.000 years old...
[13:25] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): ha
[13:25] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): amazing
[13:25] herman Bergson: you know....it was fake, they thought
[13:26] oola Neruda: and some related them to the hunt... and others related them to ceremonies conducted by a "priestly" kind of person... to ensure luck on the hunt
[13:26] oola Neruda: were they not just painting the animals for the heck of it
[13:26] oola Neruda: ?
[13:26] herman Bergson: What they mean we don't know...simple as that
[13:26] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ah yes there are supposedly some different theories about these
[13:27] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): I think art or art sake
[13:27] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): for
[13:27] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): like when i try create abstract art with my Wacom tablet
[13:27] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): or similar stuff
[13:27] oola Neruda: regarding.... i am here..... the handprints seem to relate to that
[13:27] herman Bergson: Maybe you should look deeper.....
[13:27] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): just out of the mind
[13:27] herman Bergson: Just try to imagen.....
[13:28] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): but also i already know what abstract art is so i have stuff to go from
[13:28] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): but how did it all start
[13:28] herman Bergson: you discover for the first time in life that you are able to depict something you have seen...something that is important to you....
[13:28] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ah
[13:28] herman Bergson: what feeling must that have been?
[13:28] oola Neruda: did they think animals could think... or have private lives like them?
[13:28] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): quite amazing i guess
[13:29] oola Neruda: feel guilty for eatting them?
[13:29] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): questions we will never answer i think
[13:29] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): probably someone discovered that coal or similar like chalk make patterns when scraped across a surface and they it went from there
[13:30] herman Bergson: I have heard stories about indians that killed animals for food and apologized to the slain animals...as a kind of ritual
[13:30] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): oh yes
[13:30] oola Neruda: they watered down ocre with spit... and blew it against the wall for the handprints
[13:30] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): aa ok
[13:30] herman Bergson: a respect for nature
[13:30] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): good hunters still do that
[13:31] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): not like Bolsenaro and his bulldozer gang BRRRRRRBBBBBBBBRRRRRRRRRRRMMMBLLLLL
[13:31] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): plowing everything they see down and set fire to the rest
[13:31] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): luckily most of uss still try be good to nature
[13:31] Lady Jane Grey (theiarhea): the writing tool didnt make the line. the user of the tool made the line. when the user of the tool saw the line they made, they had a "lightbulb" moment.
[13:32] oola Neruda: not ocre... duhhh... but a red mineral i cannot think of the name
[13:32] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): but it now takes just one or a few skew minded and some heavy machinery to make a total mess
[13:32] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): often irrecoverable
[13:32] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): aaa yes
[13:33] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): like HEY I CAN DRAW WITH THIS!
[13:33] oola Neruda: even breathing in a cave with paintings ... leads to their ruin
[13:33] Lady Jane Grey (theiarhea): aborginals of the west burned down land to use it
[13:33] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): what a discovery must that have been...the knowlegde that one can draw:)
[13:33] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): very true
[13:33] herman Bergson: I think so too Beertje
[13:34] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): in eaarly days in usa farmers took down whole forests
[13:34] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): well sure clear land is one thing but shoveling down acre after acre with no regard to the ecosystem
[13:34] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): i guess we did similar stuff back then
[13:34] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): however today we know more
[13:34] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): that was only 300 years ago
[13:34] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): should know
[13:34] Lady Jane Grey (theiarhea): yes, gemma, as did the aboriginals before the arrival of the European farmers
[13:34] CB Axel: Who ever was the first to draw probably still had a parent who asked, "What are you doing that for? Why can't you be a great hunter like your brother?"
[13:34] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): yes
[13:35] herman Bergson: Maybe there was such a parent indeed CB :-))
[13:35] Lady Jane Grey (theiarhea): haha cb!
[13:35] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): hahah
[13:35] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate) GIGGLES!!
[13:35] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): ...LOL...
[13:35] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): those parents still exist
[13:36] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): yep
[13:36] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): art is not always understood
[13:37] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): could it be that they were afraid of the paintings?
[13:37] herman Bergson: Art is an experience....you get it or you don't :-)
[13:37] CB Axel: Maybe, Beertje.
[13:37] oola Neruda: it helps to have a knowledge of art history... to "get it"
[13:37] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): or liike (before: Dont sit in front of that computer, go and do some creative stuff! - today: programming and digital art is one of the most lucrative jobs out there)
[13:37] CB Axel: Maybe they thought the artist was somehow harnessing the spirit of the animal.
[13:38] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): maybe
[13:38] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): yes CB
[13:38] oola Neruda: that is part of the \"priest" theory
[13:38] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): aa
[13:38] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): like how you once believed that a camera captured part of your soul
[13:38] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): did they already know what a 'priest' was?
[13:38] Chloe Goodliffe is offline.
[13:38] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): i think so
[13:39] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): i think there were shamens from the very beginning
[13:39] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ah
[13:39] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): maybee
[13:39] herman Bergson: Many theories and we'll never know the answers, because from those times there wasn't a written legacy
[13:39] oola Neruda: and the guy who went around shooting ...literally... people with his rigged up camera ... to see if he could photograph the spirit leaving the body
[13:39] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): once people realized who they were they needed answers to why
[13:39] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): and it all began
[13:39] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): aaa i have seen a film recently of this
[13:40] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): don't remember what the camera was called
[13:40] herman Bergson: Indeed Gemma.....homo sapiens was able to ask the WHY question
[13:40] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): yes
[13:40] oola Neruda: and when they decided a means to count
[13:40] herman Bergson: which cognitively means that he had an understanding of causality
[13:41] herman Bergson: cognitively
[13:41] oola Neruda: the first emporer of China was "anointed" because he thought up how make a map.... and he also tried to do something about the rivers flooding
[13:42] oola Neruda: order out of chaos
[13:42] CB Axel: Early farmers noticed the pattern of rivers flooding and figured out how to exploit it.
[13:42] herman Bergson: in other words....recognizing patterns ^_^
[13:43] oola Neruda: yes
[13:43] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): :-)
[13:43] herman Bergson: A nice conclusion of our discussion I would say :-)
[13:43] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): very good
[13:43] CB Axel: It not just important to recognize a pattern. One must know how to use it.
[13:43] CB Axel: :)
[13:44] herman Bergson: So...unless you still have that super important remark or question ot ask.......?
[13:44] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): ♥ Thank Youuuuuuuuuu!! ♥
[13:44] herman Bergson: Class dismissed :-)
[13:44] CB Axel: And now, a message from John Boehner...
[13:44] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ㋡
[13:44] Gemma (gemma.cleanslate): ohoh
[1[13:44] Lady Jane Grey (theiarhea): Thank you, very much, Professor
[13:44] CB Axel: You have to have sound on to hear it. :)
[13:46] CB Axel: Bye bye, everyone. :)
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