Chimps'r' not us: they do not use speech or language (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, August 02, 2019, 18:24 (1941 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: It wasn't fallow. They were in process of developing a more complete language!

QUOTE: The archaeological indications are that this new potential lay fallow for upwards of 100,000 years, until it was activated by a cultural stimulus of some kind.(DAVID’s bold)

DAVID: The bold strongly points out my position that the brain appears with established complexity and later it is learned to be used.

dhw: Thank you for now agreeing that the new potential did not lie fallow after all.

I never implied that nothing happened! Once the new brain was there, they learned to use it from the beginning.

dhw: I don’t suppose you’d like to give us your theory as to why your God allegedly made the anatomical changes “appear” 100,000 years before they were needed, would you?

DAVID: I have. Provide the instrument and let the organism learn to use it. You can't play a piano unless there is one in your house.

dhw: The proposal I object to here is that the instrument was not used for 100,000 years. How can you learn to play the piano without playing the piano?
[…]
DAVID: Of course they used [it] as they learned to use it more fully!

dhw: Thank you for agreeing that it is sheer nonsense to claim that early sapiens did not use his anatomical changes for 100,000 years. We are in complete agreement. He must have used it all the time, and as time when by, he used it more fully, because as we all know, language also evolves with use. Our disagreement – not covered at all by the article you posted – is over the possible cause of the anatomical changes: a divine dabble (your proposal), or the need for expanded means of communication generating the necessary changes (as in pre-whale legs changing into flippers as a result of the effort to meet new requirements).

We agree and also disagree. That is normal discussion .