Landscape of the Mind
By:John F. Hoffecker
Published on 2011-05-31 by Columbia University Press
In Landscape of the Mind, John F. Hoffecker explores the origin and growth of the human mind, drawing on archaeology, history, and the fossil record. He suggests that, as an indirect result of bipedal locomotion, early humans developed a feedback relationship among their hands, brains, and tools that evolved into the capacity to externalize thoughts in the form of shaped stone objects. When anatomically modern humans evolved a parallel capacity to externalize thoughts as symbolic language, individual brains within social groups became integrated into a |neocortical Internet,| or super-brain, giving birth to the mind. Noting that archaeological traces of symbolism coincide with evidence of the ability to generate novel technology, Hoffecker contends that human creativity, as well as higher order consciousness, is a product of the superbrain. He equates the subsequent growth of the mind with human history, which began in Africa more than 50,000 years ago. As anatomically modern humans spread across the globe, adapting to a variety of climates and habitats, they redesigned themselves technologically and created alternative realities through tools, language, and art. Hoffecker connects the rise of civilization to a hierarchical reorganization of the super-brain, triggered by explosive population growth. Subsequent human history reflects to varying degrees the suppression of the mind's creative powers by the rigid hierarchies of nationstates and empires, constraining the further accumulation of knowledge. The modern world emerged after 1200 from the fragments of the Roman Empire, whose collapse had eliminated a central authority that could thwart innovation. Hoffecker concludes with speculation about the possibility of artificial intelligence and the consequences of a mind liberated from its organic antecedents to exist in an independent, nonbiological form.
This Book was ranked at 38 by Google Books for keyword music and the mind.
Book ID of Landscape of the Mind's Books is TFbHLHRudEMC, Book which was written byJohn F. Hoffeckerhave ETAG "LgWkHJwqwfI"
Book which was published by Columbia University Press since 2011-05-31 have ISBNs, ISBN 13 Code is 9780231518482 and ISBN 10 Code is 023151848X
Reading Mode in Text Status is false and Reading Mode in Image Status is true
Book which have "288 Pages" is Printed at BOOK under CategorySocial Science
This Book was rated by Raters and have average rate at ""
This eBook Maturity (Adult Book) status is NOT_MATURE
Book was written in en
eBook Version Availability Status at PDF is true and in ePub is false
Book Preview
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar