Emergence of the Rank-5 society

The evolution of cognition by William Benzon and David Hays is an endlessly fascinating read. I get the same sort of inspired buzz as when watching the Matrix and probably for the same reasons.

Their basic proposal is that human societies can be classified according to different ranks representing different modes of thought as we edge towards more complex societies. As an overview, they explain that Rank 1 is associated with the invention of language, Rank 2 with the invention of writing, Rank 3 with the invention of calculation, and Rank 4 with the invention of computation. Each stage of that procession, they explain, is dominated by a certain way of seeing the world that adds something new and valuable to our collective understanding in the previous stages. It has as much to say in sociology as it does in the science of computation.

I take away a lot of new ideas and questions in this piece. One curious absence in the entire article is a direct mention of a Rank-5 society. What would that entail? What would its hallmark invention be? I come to the conclusion that it's a society that through the medium of machine language has delegated the process of algorithm creation to digital agents, through the process of universal induction and by a mechanism of conscious adaptive system design.

In such an age, I gather that beyond our need to "control" systems, as now, the new way of seeing the world will recognize that a means to balance is paramount in all lasting systems. The notion of "control" thus will evolve to a point where we accept a hands-off approach by creating a good system to begin with that suits our needs, a system that no longer requires our direct involvement because its embedded balance keeps it dependable. Self-managing systems will become the norm, breeding a whole new way of seeing the world and our place in it. The beginning of this age then will be announced by the emergence of AI.

Alpha males, beta males (... and other choices to be discovered)

A couple of days ago Melinda Beck at The Wall Street Journal posed the question Are Alpha Males Healthy?. The subtext reads Aggressiveness aids rise to top, but the stress can harm a body.

First I can't help but feel that this subject is in some way triggered by the dramatic economic downturn currently unfolding. The implicit notion here perhaps is that wealthy "alpha males" are more stressed out for having unjustly accumulated so much materialism which has caused only crushing war, poverty, disease and death among the rest of the world's population. Naturally "betas" in this sense can only hope that such karma honestly plays out. If "alpha" is meant covertly to hint at sociopathy, then siding with author and psychologist Martha Stout on this matter, such people by nature lack empathy; they seldom if ever learn their lesson or feel sorry for what they do. Certainly there's no questioning that sociopathic people aren't healthy.

But what exactly does "alpha male" or "beta male" mean in this context anyway? We must accurately define it first before we can have a handle on the vague question. It can't just be about aggression since we're often in a variety of different roles from minute to minute in our complex society. As one commenter, James M. Smith, comically puts it:

"'Alpha' in our society is context-based. I know a guy who's an alpha tax accountant, but he's an omega at flag football.

One possible dichotomy that we can use to cleave through this subject is the difference between "healthy competition" and "unhealthy competition." We may argue that moderation is the winning hand at the end of the day in all things. Unhealthy competition is the kind of competition that loses balance and context, thereby leading to stress because it so opposes our evolutionary development and it can lead to many detrimental errors in judgment. Cyberspace is currently debating whether or not our overall economic and social systems are just such an unbalanced form of competition that pits one person against another mentally and physically. An alternative to that format exists, "cooperative competition," that constantly reminds us that we're all in this together against chaos. It's a much saner form of competition that doesn't lead to the widespread isolation observed in extremely competitive societies. Afterall a common expression is "It's lonely at the top!" although it's just as lonely at the middle and bottom if all a society does is wage war with itself to keep up with the Jones's.

Finally, there's a lurking sexism in the whole text. Notice that females are being corralled into a common stereotype and linked to "passive cooperation," while males are likewise associated with "aggressive competition." Let's get real: aggression is not linked with gender. And for that matter, aggression means more than just brute strength. Gender differences are by and large sensationalized by the media. Measured overlaps between the brains of both cardinal sexes aren't taken into account enough in intelligent discussion. If we can all accept that there are "alpha females" present in society too, why then is the title emphasizing males and their aggression as if to say that males have a monopoly on this behavioural trait?

The evolution of empathy

There's a great talk here available online at the Centre for Inquiry website that I just have to share with everyone called Evolution of empathy. The speech is very insightful and spoken in plain language. It gives a lot to think about on different societal attitudes towards moral behaviour, behavioural tendencies in social populations, and what direction we're all headed in. (No, it's not necessarily completely doom and gloom at all.) It personally gave me a few positive insights to reflect on.

Let us try to be on our guard against all that sort of thing

Duane at Abnormal Interests lately quoted an English translation of Plato's Politikós 263d:

"But indeed, my most courageous young friend, perhaps, if there is any other animal capable of thought, such as the crane appears to be, or any other like creature, and it perchance gives names, just as you do, it might in its pride of self oppose cranes to all other animals, and group the rest, men included, under one head, calling them by one name, which might very well be that of beasts. Now let us try to be on our guard against all that sort of thing."

It's an interesting quote when placed alongside modern quests to understand language origins in proto-humans. Do some of us likewise group modern humans separately from all other antecedents of our species and assume in shame that they must surely have been lacking in the ability to communicate in complex ways? And do we assume that oral speech, using a developed modern larynx, is the only way to convey rich ideas?

In the dumbed-down hype over the discovered FOXP2 gene a few years back, I could only be irritated by a persistent media bias towards spoken communication when discussing it, in blanket ignorance of the possible role gestural communication (including ancient-but-now-dead sign languages) might have played in our development towards what we now label "language" but which we improperly imply to mean only "vocal language" or "speech". If this gene were honestly at the very root of our capacity to understand grammar, it would also affect an ability to express in sign language or learn writing while having no effect on our other abilities somehow. Then again, isn't every form of thought, even outside of language proper, formed from some kind of set of "grammatical rules"? Circuits are structured by the grammar of logic (a combination of fundamental AND, OR and NOT gates), for example. Is one grammar truly different from another? If so, how? How can we then separate a capacity to decipher communicated ideas via consistent rules from a capacity to reason itself? If we admit what's suggested here, we admit that language is in effect universal to all living things in a plethora of forms and complexities. Language, when defined less biasedly as mere information exchange, turns out to be surprisingly commonplace.

Thankfully Geoffrey Pullum debunked much of this brown sugar drivel six years ago on Language Log. FOXP2's not a grammar gene afterall. It's terribly unlikely in fact that DNA codes for something as abstract as "language" or "grammar" by way of a single gene. For that matter, it's unrealistic to expect that the double helix codes such an abstract thing even explicitly at all. Check out new theories on how "emergence" plays a role in everything from gene function and computer programming to human language and grammatical rules.

So let's be on guard against unscientific human chauvinism; that somehow we modern humans gained the corner on language. Plato's pagan writings of long ago are correct. We're not that different from all the talking beasts around us. Science is merely reminding us of what was already gestured before we were born.

Illegal baby names

The following amusing article is so àpropos to the topic of society, culture and mass insanity. It's also just plain funny.

10 illegal baby names

Personally I'm stunned that the Swedish name Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116 (pronounced 'Albin') would be banned. I think we should name more kids such things to screw telemarketers up. I can envision hilarious scenarios in the future:

"Is there a Mr. or Mrs... um... erh... Oops, nevermind!" {Phone hangs up suddenly.}

Truth be told, despite all the well-intentioned legislation, there exist quite a share of Nancy Gaylords and Hung Dongs in the world. As far as I know, lawyers haven't objected to their parents' flagrant brutality. The entire character list of the Matrix trilogy must really dismay a lot of lawmakers, come to think of it - Mouse, Trinity, Merovingian, Morpheus, etc.

It's also fascinating how certain arbitrarily selected baby names touch such a raw nerve for lawmakers and yet eliminating child poverty is relatively low on society's list of things to do. Oh well. I guess it's true what they say: A dead malnourished baby is better than a healthy teased baby. And I leave you all to ruminate on that sad note.

Foreign accent syndrome

I was notified of this first while watching BBC. It would be a lie if I said I didn't choke on my tea. I'm not sure how to weigh this. Part of me thinks that a disorder like this is within plausibility since I myself find that my brain, thus far, can compartmentalize different phonologies of different languages quite well. Would it were that I had a stroke, Athena forbid, who's to say that my own mental walls between the set of English phonemes of my native dialect and the distinct set of French ones I've adopted might become blurred? If the data chemically coded in my cerebellum were mangled just right, I might conceivably enounce my English ar with a uvular panache.

Yet, the skeptical and pessimistic side of me (the one that's done so well to keep me out of trouble in life) appreciates the immense attention hypochondriacs can receive from being misdiagnosed with this hazy disorder. No, strokes and cognitive disorders are certainly not funny but one has to admit that it elicits a little doubt.

Below is a Youtube clip of an interview with a woman who says she acquired an Asian accent after an acute migraine caused some brain damage.




UPDATES
(26 Dec 2010) Browsing more online, I notice two other blog links tackling the bizarre subject. One is Neurologica: Foreign Language Syndrome which rightly compares this to the absurd glossolalia of some fundamentalist Christian sects, hinting at other disturbing motives here and not just scientific ones, unfortunately. Then Language Log: Foreign Accent Syndrome speaks of a similar disorder with a suspiciously similar term that also can so easily be sensationalized with notions of miracles serving to reinforce an irrational belief system.

When I think of it, I'd be more prone to interpret this news story as genuine if it weren't for the sensationalist term used. It's clearly not a genuine foreign accent being acquired and its proponents explain it as a kind of dysphasia. So why not just call it that and show greater respect for the intellect of viewers? This issue combined with the stunted debate about how "Chinese" her accent really is is, to be frank, just plain stupid if not potentially offensive.

Children of Men

Today, there was a real cinematic treat on the Space Channel called Children of Men. The film stars the brooding Clive Owen together with a small but strong role by Michael Caine, acted brilliantly as always. Although Julianne Moore (as Julian) is listed on covers as a selling point, I think anyone having watched this can agree that her contribution in the film pales in comparison to the solid work of Clare-Hope Ashitey (Kee). The 2006 movie is a dystopia set in 2027. No child has been born for 18 years for reasons that scientists can't explain although out-of-control pollution is hinted as a cause. As such, humankind has less than a hundred years of existence left unless a miracle happens. It turns out that an African refugee named Kee is humanity's hope since she, just as inexplicably, is bearing child. Thus begins the dangerous journey of this expectant mother, protected by the kindness of a small band of philanthropic strangers who would sacrifice themselves for the welfare of this child.

This is one of my favourite sci-fi films of all time because, unlike most directors of the genre that resort to an over-reliance on 'futuristic' special effects to carry a plotless movie, this dystopia relies squarely on solid acting and storyline in the midst of a bleak setting of all-out civil war and opportunistic violence. The premise is all too realistic and if you're not disturbed by any of it, quite frankly, you're probably not human.


The camera tilts and turns through streets and corridors as if we the viewer are invisible participants in the horror. At one point, the camera is splattered with a victim's blood but it continues on navigating through the scene, suggesting by this subtle detail that we ourselves are stained with this future blood by our own witness. A very stark warning. Competing philosophical views (ie. fate versus randomness; atheism versus faith) are referenced but are tactfully presented without beating it over our heads as in Hollywood films. It's really a collector's movie; it's that good!

Now, to come back to the topic of linguistics, the point of my blog afterall, Kee softly sings a lullaby in an African language. I wanted to test out my online research skills and see if I could call up the name of this song, its lyrics and the exact meaning behind it. Well, I have to pat myself on my back. YAY! While I assumed at first that it was in Swahili, the sweet song is spoken in a more obscure language called Gã. The endearing lyrics of the song^[1] go perfectly with the film's bittersweet seesaw between the senseless self-ruin of the masses in the short term and the striving towards a higher purpose by a few in the long:

Kaːfo, kaːfo, kaːfo ni moko kwɛ oɖaŋ	Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry for someone to look in your mouth
Sika kɛ kpɔ yɛ oɖan	A gold nugget is in your mouth
Kaːfo ni moko kwɛ oɖaŋ	Don't cry for someone to look in your mouth[2]

NOTES
^[1] Agawu, Representing African music: Postcolonial notes, queries, positions (2003), p.99 (see link).
^[2] Agawu explains the nature of the lyrics in the aforementioned reference: "Mother speaks to child, trying to dissuade him from crying. There is a gold nugget in your mouth; if you cry, people will see it and want to possess it because it is precious. So hide it by closing your mouth, by not crying."

Scientists find 2,000-year-old brain in Britain

Brains!!

"British archaeologists have unearthed an ancient skull carrying a startling surprise — an unusually well-preserved brain. Scientists said Friday that the mass of gray matter was more than 2,000 years old — the oldest ever discovered in Britain. One expert unconnected with the find called it 'a real freak of preservation.'"

Read more here...

Four Stone Hearth - Volume 37

"The art from the 1960s reveals an expectation that we had about the way things might be, should be, or perhaps the way we were afraid things would be. Jet packs, streamlined rocket ships with fins, girls in space with tight fitting spacesuits, and killer robots and aliens."

On to Volume 37, which is served up by Hot Cup of Joe. The blogauthor is a University of Texas anthropology graduate with an added fascination for the psychology behind modern pseudoscientific myth. This is a very fun edition of Four Stone Hearth, reflecting on the thoughts and visions of yesteryear. To access this volume directly, click on the link below or the image above:

Four Stone Hearth: Volume 37

Four Stone Hearth - Volume 36

"It has been an interesting few weeks in anthropology, so without further ado here are the submissions (in no particular order)."

Volume 36 is hosted by Afarensis who gets straight to the chase with a menu of tasty dishes concerning anthropology and human evolution. To access this volume directly, click on the link below or the image above:

Four Stone Hearth: Volume 36

Four Stone Hearth - Volume 35

"Because our only home is bone, we must ask the question, how sleepless is the egg knowing that which throws the stone foresees the bone?"

The Four Stone Hearth blog carnival has come to Archaeoporn, a blog by Thaddeus Nelson (a PHD student at Stony Brook University in Long Island) who devotes his site to "archaeology, religion, and pseudo-science". This is all better explained on his About page.

To access this volume directly, click on the link below or the image above:

Four Stone Hearth: Volume 35

Four Stone Hearth - Volume 33

"The usual rule with blog carnivals is 'one post per blog.' This rule is ignored because in several instances, a post was self-submitted (which is the usual way posts are submitted to carnivals) from a particular blog, and a different post was nominated for that same blog. It would be wrong to ignore either kind of submission, so I chose to ignore the one post per blog rule."

Greg Laden's Blog talks about evolution, life science, science education, human evolution "and stuff". Greg Laden is an independent scholar and an associate advisor with the Program for Individualized Learning at the University of Minnesota, living in Minneapolis-St.Paul.

To access this volume directly, click on the link below or the image above:

Four Stone Hearth: Volume 33

Four Stone Hearth - Volume 32

I have a whole bunch of things to say about the Indo-European stop system, phonation and the presence of Aegean (Etruscoid) languages in Anatolia, after recent comments by Phoenix triggered a synaptic explosion in my cerebral cortex. No, don't worry... That's a good thing. I also found some informative online goodies that I can't wait to explore with you all. But first...

"I thought I’d open up this the 32 edition of the 4SH blog carnival with a few pictures taken last summer at a small Iron Age grave field in Halland county, Sodra Unnaryd parish."

The "travelling social sciences blog carnival" called Four Stone Hearth is now as old as I am. Yes, the big 32. The Swedish blog Testimony of the Spade which touches on subjects concerning archaeology, osteology and cultural heritage conjures up this latest volume.

To access this volume directly, click on the link below or the image above:

Four Stone Hearth: Volume 32

Four Stone Hearth - Volume 31

This whole Christmas/New Years' broohaha has got my schedule all screwed up. I've been late with the Four Stone Hearth notifications again. Mea culpa. And this is a witty one too but thankfully these posts don't have expiry dates.

The latest volume is authored by Tim Abbott, blogauthor of Walking the Berkshires and Litchfield Hills Greenprint Program Director with the Trust for Public Land and Housatonic Valley Association, who describes himself as "a conservation professional and a pretty good writer with eclectic tastes and interests". I'll say. He writes candidly in a brilliantly obfuscated and multidimensional way concerning the issues in preparing for this latest volume:

"Still, I'm a lumper, not a splitter, and besides we were in grave danger of being a three-stone hearth (still a sturdy tripod, but not a fully quadratic edition) [...]".

Informative and hilarious! To access this volume directly, please click on the link below or the image above:

Four Stone Hearth: Volume 31

Four Stone Hearth - Volume 30

Whoops! Being that it's so close to Christmas, I almost forgot that it's already time for the 30th volume of Four Stone Hearth, the travelling blog carnival of social sciences!! I really have to get it together.

This new issue is brought to you by The Greenbelt which has the bizarre subtitle "Language Liberalism Freethought Birds". Erh, I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean but it's just weird enough to suck me in. This blogger is a dabbling polyglot, an amateur photographer and an overall science enthusiast from Maryland, United States.

To access this volume directly, please click on the link below:

Four Stone Hearth: Volume 30

Bon apétit!

Four Stone Hearth - Volume 29

Enjoy the lastest episode of the Four Stone Hearth's travelling blog carnival of social sciences! The latest issue is provided to you by Remote Central, authored by a shadowy figured named Tim Jones, or at least that's the way his blogger icon and empty profile make him appear, hehe. Nonetheless, an intriguing read filled with tasty thoughts and information yet again. To access this volume directly, please click on the link below:

Four Stone Hearth: Volume 29

Enjoy the past!

Four Stone Hearth - Volume 28

Get your latest fix of the Four Stone Hearth blog carnival! The latest issue will be provided to you by the Hot Cup of Joe blogsite maintained by a hardworking 4th year anthropology student from Texas who discusses the field of archaeology. To access this volume directly, please click on the link below:

Four Stone Hearth: Volume 28

Have fun!

Four Stone Hearth: Volume 26

Time for another edition of Four Stone Hearth, the always-informative multi-blog travelling carnival of social sciences. This time it's hosted by Primate Diaries.

• Four Stone Hearth: Volume 26

Enjoy.

Four Stone Hearth - Volume 24

Paddy K hosts this volume of Four Stone Hearth's always-informative multi-blog travelling carnival of social sciences, adding a tinge of irreverent humour to make it entertaining too:

Click here...

And we can scroll down to find: "Glen over at Paleoglot gives us a few thoughts on sexuality and history and how it is impossible to separate one from the other, no matter how many flag-waving moralists are camped on your front lawn."

Lol! I couldn't have summed it up better myself. In fact, maybe that's how I should have worded it in that article. Enjoy!

Four Stone Hearth: Volume 20

The latest volume 20 of Four Stone Hearth is hosted on Afarensis to give you informative links to various things archaeological, historical, linguistic and in all scientific.

• Four Stone Hearth: Volume 20