Monday, March 01, 2004
Stimulating Human Evolution
In the 1950's, Noam Chomsky described the Language Acquisition Device (LAD), an innate yet dormant predisposition for learning language that must be activated during a "critical period" (before the age of 12) by sufficient environmental to a specific language. This critical period correlates with Timothy Leary's description of the third (laryngeal-manual/symbolic) circuit of human evolution.
Anthropologist Robin Dunbar points out that language may have evolved to support the complexity of an extraordinary peer group size (around 150 people). Evolutionary psychologists further suggest that language may have developed from gossip in these large groups as a way to sort out the "cheaters" (who take but don't give) and the "suckers" (who give but don't take).
Our brains may also evolve in response to handling novel information. Biologist Paul Grobstein writes, "unpredictability in behavior is not the first thought that comes to mind when people hear the terms 'intelligence' or 'cognitive ability,' but variability may in fact be an important component of what we mean by those terms."
Given that language acquisition and brain development are so closely tied to novel, socially-directed environmental influences, it is easy to wonder what other innate potentials exist within our genetic code waiting to be triggered. Maybe an answer lies within our "junk DNA" which makes up more than 95% or our code.
It turns out that the sequence of "junk" (which, by definition, should be random) is "not random at all and has a striking resemblance with the structure of human language (ref. Flam, F. "Hints of a language in junk DNA", Science 266:1320, 1994, see quote below). Therefore, scientists now generally believe that this DNA must contain some kind of coded information." The code and its function is now believed to be directly involved in gene expression and transcription of proximal genes (Jaan Suurkula).
Anthropologist Robin Dunbar points out that language may have evolved to support the complexity of an extraordinary peer group size (around 150 people). Evolutionary psychologists further suggest that language may have developed from gossip in these large groups as a way to sort out the "cheaters" (who take but don't give) and the "suckers" (who give but don't take).
Our brains may also evolve in response to handling novel information. Biologist Paul Grobstein writes, "unpredictability in behavior is not the first thought that comes to mind when people hear the terms 'intelligence' or 'cognitive ability,' but variability may in fact be an important component of what we mean by those terms."
Given that language acquisition and brain development are so closely tied to novel, socially-directed environmental influences, it is easy to wonder what other innate potentials exist within our genetic code waiting to be triggered. Maybe an answer lies within our "junk DNA" which makes up more than 95% or our code.
It turns out that the sequence of "junk" (which, by definition, should be random) is "not random at all and has a striking resemblance with the structure of human language (ref. Flam, F. "Hints of a language in junk DNA", Science 266:1320, 1994, see quote below). Therefore, scientists now generally believe that this DNA must contain some kind of coded information." The code and its function is now believed to be directly involved in gene expression and transcription of proximal genes (Jaan Suurkula).
