A thought on cognitive modernity
A few days ago on Twitter I posted this:
While cumulative effects of civilization have changed the allocation of cognitive resources, cognitive modernity precedes this allocation.
Here is the longer version that would not fit within the 140 character limit of that forum:
While the cumulative effects of civilization have changed the allocation of human cognitive resources, cognitive modernity itself precedes this particular allocation of cognitive resources.
We can extrapolate the fact of a different allocation of cognitive resources that prevailed during the period of cognitive modernity that preceded civilization and its increasing specialized demands on human cognitive abilities.
The exact form of the allocation of cognitive resources during our long prehistory remains unknown to us, though we may yet recover some of it by way of a future science.
Of our ancestors I must wonder this:
What were they thinking?
In other words:
What was the nature of paleolithic thought?
