On Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 7:24 AM, Anastasios Tsiolakidis <sokratis...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > On 27.12.2012, at 10:04, Brett Ward <brettwar...@hotmail.com.au> wrote: > >> I wonder if the environment could be manipulated to favor survival of >> organisms that could add and subtract ;) ? >> > > In my quest to decode the primordial IQ cheat sheet, the biases that, among > other things, make us mammals and human, I concluded that both hunting in > groups and safety in groups provide tremendous incentives to work with small > numbers. In wolves this could be implemented through anxiety signals, ie a > wolf is not happy until she counts three or four around. In a tool-using > animal I can see small multiplications arising, for example three different > tools each for the 4 family members. ( the question I am trying to answer is > how much arithmetic should be build in, and how much discovered, of course > there are more anthropological ways to go about it, but I doubt any would be > more valid given our lack of good definitions, among other things). >
This sort of theme is developed at length in Derek Bickerton's book "Adam's Tongue" http://www.amazon.com/Adams-Tongue-Humans-Made-Language/dp/0809016478 which conjectures e.g. that scavenging for meat of large animals was probably the first situation commonly requiring humans to use language to refer to stuff not in the immediate physical surround... -- Ben G ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/21088071-f452e424 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21088071&id_secret=21088071-58d57657 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
