Afal Uroch the Lucky, Vach Rueth:
"...began to realize what it meant to be in the high command. Perhaps, flickered through him, that was another reason he had been chosen for this undertaking. Could they have him in mind for greater things?...Dismiss that. Carry on your hunt." (p. 312)
Uroch practices karma yoga: focus on the action, not on its possible consequences. The action will then be more efficient and effective.
Human beings and Merseians continually think about what they have said and done, what they might say and do etc. We are continually planning and preparing our responses to future challenges from our natural and social environments. SM Stirling has argued in the combox, I think correctly, that human intelligence has developed mainly to deal with our complex social environment. We need to anticipate the intentions of others and therefore we are continually interpreting not only words but also facial expressions, tones of voice and bodily movements.
It is strange to reflect that these thought processes are the conscious expression of a process that was originally unconscious. Organisms were naturally selected for sensitivity to environmental alterations. This naturally selected organismic sensitivity quantitatively increased until it was qualitatively transformed into conscious sensation. Suddenly, an organism that needed sustenance felt hungry, an organism that was hot felt hot etc. There was a first moment of consciousness expressed only by organismic movements, not by any symbolic representation or self-reflection. Then the long development of consciousness began from inner bodily sensations to outer bodily sensations to perceptions of discrete objects to thought about objects to abstract thought to imagination, creativity and contemplation. And billions of self-conscious beings wonder about each other's intentions.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
My thought is Anderson's story "The Little Monster" gives us some intriguing how early hominins like Pithecanthropines mentally thought as they became humans.
Ad astra! Sean
I just read "Cave of Bones" about the South African cave in which paleoanthropologists found strong evidence that hominid "Homo Naledi" with a smaller brain than Homo Sapiens, was deliberately burying their dead, and creating markings on the cave walls. This of course leads to speculation about their though processes.
Kaor, Jim!
It does and it reminds me again of "The Little Monster." Esp. what Jerry Parker's Spanish uncle thinking the hominins of that story were already human and had souls.
Ad astra! Sean
Bear in mind that homind brains got continually bigger.
Considering the negative consequences of our enormous brains -- the difficulties with childbirth, the prolonged dependency period it necessitates, the huge proportion of our energy that goes to supporting the brain -- this must have made some very substantial difference in reproductive success.
In other words, earlier hominins couldn't possibly have been as smart as us.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Which makes me rather sorry none of these hominins survived into our times--then we could find out how smart they were!
Ad astra! Sean
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