largely aimed at
zip4096, but you can chime in too!
For our psychology-learned readers out there: do you kids know about this fellow Julian Jaynes and bicameral mind theory? What do you guys think about this? Is the idea that consciousness as we understand it is a relatively recent development not terribly, terribly unnerving?
Also: if it turns out that this was the case, and there's some particular (apparently adaptive?) set of genes that turns on the "brain links in a particular way to produce self-awareness"... then what if not everybody has those genes yet? Three or four thousand years, on an evolutionary scale, is not a long time in the slightest.
It's also totally possible that this is all bunk. But Ashwin seems to think that it's an interesting theory, at least...
Also: if it turns out that this was the case, and there's some particular (apparently adaptive?) set of genes that turns on the "brain links in a particular way to produce self-awareness"... then what if not everybody has those genes yet? Three or four thousand years, on an evolutionary scale, is not a long time in the slightest.
It's also totally possible that this is all bunk. But Ashwin seems to think that it's an interesting theory, at least...
hmm
no subject
As for what I think of this theory, well, I've been thinking about it since I first read the post, and I've concluded that I can't say at the moment- I don't think I know enough about psychology in general or about the details of this theory. I have to admit though that I am a little skeptical- I wonder about what sort of evidence he offers... I think I'd have to read more about it...