ZOOLOGICAL HISTORY:
An Interpretation Of History
From A Zoological Perspective
Accelerative
growth in complexity began with the emergence of a central nervous system around
550 million years ago, and must end, at latest, around the middle of this
century.
Abstract
Accelerative growth in complexity with
respect to a neural network lineage began with the emergence of a central
nervous system around 550 million years ago.
This point is the first in a sequence of communication revolutions. These points form the terms of a geometric
progression, verging in the future around the year 2048. Interspersed, somewhat randomly, within the
time interval between every pair of these successive points lies a single
period during which there is an ecological transition to a new mode of
sustenance. The next communication
revolution is expected around the year 2043.
Regardless of what might emerge, it is proposed that accelerative growth
in complexity cannot continue beyond this point.
Introduction
The universe is estimated to be
around 13 700 million years old, and life on earth, 3 800 million years
old. Accelerative change with respect to
history implies continuity in ancestry from the past to the present. A neural network is defined to be any
communication system whose foundational level consists of interconnected
neurons. Therefore, this includes all
manifestations of human expression.
It is suggested that the sudden
appearance of the first animals with forms representative of current bilaterian
phyla during the Cambrian Explosion and their rapid diversification ever since
was caused by the emergence of a central nervous system. In retrospect, this point marks the beginning
of a now roughly 550 million-year-old trajectory with accelerative growth in
complexity. This neural network lineage
is initially traced through genetic ancestry and then, after the emergence of
Behaviourally Modern Humans, through cultural ancestry.
Subsequently, it will be
demonstrated that the emergence of a central nervous system was the first point
in a sequence of communication revolutions.
The time interval between every pair of successive points is around one
tenth in duration of the previous time interval. The sum of this geometric series occurs
around the year 2048. This future date
will be referred to as the communication climax (henceforth CC).
Subsequently, it will be
demonstrated that interspersed within the time interval between communication
revolution points lies a single period during which there is an ecological
transition to a new mode of sustenance.
These periods are somewhat randomly placed, as if their initiation and
progression were highly sensitive to natural and social environmental
circumstances.
The reorganization of neurons from a
diffuse network to a concentrated network, made possible by the advent of an
animal body plan having bilateral symmetry instead of radial symmetry, led to
the emergence of a central nervous system.
Framework
0
Central Nervous System
≈ .55 billion years before CC in the last common ancestor (henceforth LCA)
of current protostomes (for illustration, the holometabolous insects are
extremely successful members of this clade) and current deuterostomes (for
illustration, the jawed vertebrates are extremely successful members of this
clade). Almost all current animal
species are members of one of these two clades.
A
Nurturing of Offspring
Start - Protected embryonic development
in the LCA of current amniotes. Animal
groups collectively described as reptiles, and birds descend from the sauropsid
lineage, whereas mammals descend from the synapsid lineage.
Finish – Supplemental nourishing provided
by milk delivered from teats in the LCA of current therian mammals (a clade
that excludes primitive egg laying mammals).
1
Vision Dominance
≈ 55 million years before CC in the
LCA of current strepsirrhines (wet-nosed primates) and current haplorhines
(dry-nosed primates). Enhanced visual
perception replaced olfactory perception as the dominant sense. The finer depth perception provided by more converged eye orbits combined with
hands capable of grasping (and concomitant developments in eye-hand coordination) are very
appropriate adaptations for the most likely primate origin scenarios. These involve leaping movements inside an
arboreal habitat, catching insects, or feeding on fruit located at the end of
tree branches.
B Manipulable
Hands
Start - Opposable thumbs in the LCA of
current catarrhines (Old World anthropoids: non-American monkeys, and the apes). The precision grip aided feeding, while the
power grip aided locomotion.
Finish – Manual dexterity in the LCA of
current great apes. The building
of orangutan, gorilla, and
chimpanzee nests, for example, demonstrates considerable sensorimotor coordination.
2
Observational Learning
≈ 5.5
million years before CC in the LCA of current chimpanzees (our closest surviving relatives) and
current humans (descended from a lineage that had become adapted for bipedal
locomotion before the advent of the first human species). The transmission of culture was now possible,
initially commensurate with how novel behaviours are adopted throughout a
chimpanzee social group.
C Technology
Start - Skilled use of naturally occurring stone objects as
hammering tools or raw material for creating cutting edges in the LCA of human
species.
Finish – Stone tools made according to a
shape suited for hand use in the LCA of Acheulean culture humans. It is possible that humans had already learned
to control fire.
3
Language
≈ .55
million years before CC in the LCA of Homo neanderthalensis (our closest extinct
relatives) and Homo sapiens (Anatomically Modern Humans). Homo heidelbergensis, the putative ancestor of these two
species, had a brain size approaching that of current humans. Neanderthals had the anatomical features
necessary for speech and
inherited the same version of the FOXP2 language gene as current humans.
D Exchange
Start – Division of labor according to gender like
past hunter-gatherer societies
in the LCA of Homo sapiens (Anatomically Modern Humans). In this context, a gracile frame was an
adaption towards greater mobility and neotenous traits were a consequence of self-domestication.
Finish – Facilitation of trade with individuals outside the local community through
symbolic means like past hunter-gatherer
societies in the LCA of Homo sapiens sapiens. The earliest indicator of an important mechanism
for building the necessary underlying social bonds is the production of beads for
use in gifts.
4
General Intelligence
≈ 55
thousand years before CC in Behaviourally Modern Humans. With
the Later Stone Age in Africa and Upper
Palaeolithic
in Eurasia, intellectual abilities which have
remained fundamentally unimproved upon ever since spread with unprecedented
speed across the world. Accelerative
growth in human population now seems to have begun. Perhaps a collection of words could now
encode a picture. It is suggested culture
could now flow considerably more fluidly between divergent lineages, but that a
fundamental impasse was reached at this point:
henceforth, continued accelerative growth in complexity required human
social networks getting larger or better connected.
E Agriculture
Start – Cultivation of cereals and the
employment of dogs in the Late Natufian culture of the Levant.
This region acted as a corridor connecting Africa to Eurasia due to the surrounding physical
geography. Subsequently, a similar set
of plant and animal domesticates would be exploited by communities in the
Levant, and — where
civilizations would later arise — in the neighbouring regions of Anatolia, Crete, Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Finish – Farming settlements capable of
seeding urbanization in the Naqada II culture of Upper Egypt.
The Ancient Egyptian civilization blossomed from these Chalcolithic Age
communities. Ancient Egyptian is an
Afro-Asiatic language. The two most
likely scenarios are that either proto-Afro-Asiatic spread alongside farmers
from the Levant or expanded in Northeast Africa after farming had arrived there
from the Levant.
5
Writing
≈ 5.5
thousand years before CC in Ancient Egypt (Early Dynastic Period) as an information storage
system. The first documents were
pictorial narratives almost without text.
F Money
Start – Control of the gold supply with
the conquest of Nubia in the Ancient Egyptian Empire. Territorial expansion followed including the incorporation of Canaan. Subsequently — after the Bronze Age collapse — Iron Age Canaanites were of central
importance to intercontinental commerce: especially the Hebrew tribes of Israel (in control of the most important
trade route connecting Egypt to Mesopotamia) and the Phoenician city state of Tyre (the paramount Mediterranean Sea merchants).
Finish – Establishment of a central mint
for issuing gold and silver coinage in the Roman Empire. An era of prosperity ensued requiring more
elaborate administration. Roman culture
was very strongly influenced by Greek culture.
Greek was second in importance to Latin, being especially influential in
education. The Greek alphabet (for
illustration, the official script of the Greek Macedonian Empire) descended
from the Phoenician alphabet, as did the Aramaic alphabet (for illustration,
the official script of the Persian Achaemenid Empire).
6
Printing Press
≈ .55
thousand years before CC in the Holy Roman Empire as an information broadcasting system.
Latin was the language of scholarship in this predominantly Germanophone
state, as it still was across Western Europe.
The mechanization of document copying was made possible by using a press
with moveable type. The imperial
administration of Western Christianity had helped carry forward the progress
made prior to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.
G Industry
Start – Manufacturing as embodied by the
factory system at the Cromford Mill (for cotton spinning) in the British Empire.
The switch from Latin as the language of scholarship in England, to English, had occurred recently.
Finish – Mass production as embodied by
the moving assembly line at the Highland Park Plant (for building automobiles) in
the United States of America.
This Anglophone
state would direct the economic progress of the world.
7
World Wide Web
≈ 55 years
before CC in the
global community as an information access system. These hypertext linked documents distributed
across computers connected to the internet became popular with the debut of the
Mosaic web browser.
Discussion
A cursory examination of the time
periods during which ecological transitions are proposed to have occurred will
reveal that there is an incredible concentration of key events — in the sense of originating new
developmental pathways —
within them. During these intervals,
transformations occur in anatomical organization (accordingly mirrored in
animal behaviour) or, after the emergence of Behaviourally Modern Humans, in
economic organization (accordingly mirrored in the branches of knowledge and
arts). The primary attribute of each
ecological transition seems to always become more elaborate during all
subsequent ecological transitional periods with cumulative consequences.
An insight into the future can be
gained based upon an extrapolation of the retrospective interpretation so far
presented. Assuming that accelerative
growth in complexity is still continuing, the next communication revolution is
expected to occur around the year 2043 based upon a simplistic calculation:
1993 (Mosaic debut) + 50 = 2043. When
taking into consideration the potential for greater affluence around the world,
it seems likely that there could be accelerative growth in complexity up until
this point — as long as
an ecological transition is completed before then. Increasing wealth per person could compensate
for a plateauing world population.
It is impossible for accelerative
growth in complexity to continue all the way up to the communication climax
around 2048. Whatever might happen, by
around 2043 obstacles to communication will no longer be the primary limiting
factor preventing the development of humanity at an accelerative rate. Therefore, the next communication revolution
would simultaneously demonstrate that accelerative growth in complexity had
continued up until that point and mark its end; growth in complexity would
still continue, albeit at a slower non-accelerative rate. It would probably not be coincidental if peak
world population also occurs around 2043.
Tanwir
Wazir-Khaksar
22 September 2012, Glasgow
