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RedNucleus
Causal Observer
Registered: 02/26/01
Posts: 4,103
Loc: The Seahorse Valley
Last seen: 3 years, 5 months
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Parallel evolution of the human hand and the brain. My own thoughts
#4151868 - 05/08/05 10:48 PM (18 years, 10 months ago) |
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got to thinking that there are similarities among humans, and I decided that humans likely have evolved some parts of our minds that use our hands as a reference for our thoughts.
I thought that the number of fingers on a person's hand might hold symbolic importance in the mental architecture of human minds; i.e., important properties of every human mind can be mapped out on the five fingers, because humans evolved while using and observing their own hands. I decided to quickly think of what each finger might represent. I quickly did. I walked in and typed the following:
Thumb: love Index: do Middle: judge, determine, decide, Ring: fantasize, interpret, wonder, build further Little: go even farther beyond. make wholes of parts. make new ideas from previous ones.
After brainstorming, I thought that it was likely that someone had written something that was almost completely similar. I went to google, thought for a moment, and typed "five tenets" without quotes. I saw "Five Tenets of Islam," which I skipped for now, because the description in the second site already looked like similar stuff.
http://www.andrewcohen.org/teachings/fiveTenets.asp
Lo and behold, these five ideas are similar to mine. I won't write what his list was about, because it looks silly. Here they are side by side. I paraphrased them.
His 1: emotional involvement Me 1: love
His 2: accepting responsibility for what we do Me 2: do
His 3: face everything and avoid nothing, facing the truth Me 3: judge, determine, decide,
His 4: Everyone is largely the same. what and who you are is not unique. (read the site) Me 4: fantasize, interpret, wonder, build further
His 5: for the sake of the whole Me 5: go even farther beyond. make wholes of parts. make new ideas from previous ones.
Now I'll explain where I see similarities:
1: emotional connection 2: reality, action 3: judgement, determining the truth 4: Association 5: Making a whole
So all of this has led me to tell you that I feel the final list, directly above, is a 5-step structure of thinking that is common to all humans. It is hard-wired genetically and everyone does it. Our minds have evolved using our hands as a point of reference for thinking.
Of course I'm not saying that my conclusion is factual. This is a hypothesis.
-------------------- Namaste
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exclusive58
illegal alien
Registered: 04/16/04
Posts: 2,146
Last seen: 6 years, 21 days
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Re: Parallel evolution of the human hand and the brain. My own thoughts [Re: RedNucleus]
#4153003 - 05/09/05 10:38 AM (18 years, 10 months ago) |
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Sure, but our hands have a total of 10 fingers...does that mean that the other five fingers are completely meaningless?
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Doom
Rogue
Registered: 11/23/04
Posts: 365
Loc: ghost-train city
Last seen: 17 years, 9 months
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Re: Parallel evolution of the human hand and the brain. My own thoughts [Re: exclusive58]
#4153018 - 05/09/05 10:45 AM (18 years, 10 months ago) |
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Sorry, am I missing something because this makes absolutely no sense to me. In a similar manner, one could assign any meaning to any object and validate it through a fantasy number scheme.
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exclusive58
illegal alien
Registered: 04/16/04
Posts: 2,146
Last seen: 6 years, 21 days
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Re: Parallel evolution of the human hand and the brain. My own thoughts [Re: Doom]
#4153042 - 05/09/05 10:55 AM (18 years, 10 months ago) |
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hey, some would argue that there is meaning in everything doesn't mean its true, but you can always have a fun time tripping out on the meaning of bunch of different things...what's cool is that no one can tell you for sure if you're right of if you're wrong!
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Doom
Rogue
Registered: 11/23/04
Posts: 365
Loc: ghost-train city
Last seen: 17 years, 9 months
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Re: Parallel evolution of the human hand and the brain. My own thoughts [Re: exclusive58]
#4153150 - 05/09/05 11:30 AM (18 years, 10 months ago) |
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wrong. I can tell for sure because I performed self-surgery on my brain and implanted a magical crystal inbetween my thalamus and hypothalamus.
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redgreenvines
irregular verb
Registered: 04/08/04
Posts: 38,063
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Re: Parallel evolution of the human hand and the brain. My own thoughts [Re: Doom]
#4153454 - 05/09/05 01:10 PM (18 years, 10 months ago) |
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we have to keep doing this. asking the questions and gazing into the fabric. emerging with odd souvenirs of understanding that are mere swatches of the woven totality. I would date it and file it, gaze again and tear swatches from other parts of your insight. repeat.
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RedNucleus
Causal Observer
Registered: 02/26/01
Posts: 4,103
Loc: The Seahorse Valley
Last seen: 3 years, 5 months
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Re: Parallel evolution of the human hand and the brain. My own thoughts [Re: exclusive58]
#4155560 - 05/09/05 11:27 PM (18 years, 10 months ago) |
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I chose to ponder a single hand. I am not claiming that my five fingers actually mean those things. I did not want to focus on both hands because that they are mirror images of each other, so my exercise couldn't be applied to both hands.
All I did was hold up each finger and let a thought flow.
My conclusion was not that the thumb represents love or whatever.
What I gained from this little thought exercise was some insight into the process of thinking. I conceptualized some steps in the thought process by using my hand. I feel that our hands have evolved to be useful as tools in prehistoric man's thinking. In other words, without the ability to write, man's own hands probably served as visual reinforcement for the thought process.
You know I'm right at some level. Think of how natural hand signaling is. We definitely have such rich hand motion ability in part because it aids communication.
I was trying to see if I could feel out some fundamentals of this mental architecture.
-------------------- Namaste
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