30137YuNoHaSH26b the amount of information thàt ~~

Q&@
ONE MUST OBTAIN
AND STORE IN ORDER TO TRACK OUR
EVER-CHANGING RELATIONSHIPS OF EVEN
A FEW DOZEN INDIVIDUALS IS STAGGERING!
{In a band of 50 individuals, there are 1,225 one-on-one relationships,
and countless more complex combinations!} ALL APES SHOW A KEEN INTEREST
IN SUCH SOCIAL INFORMATION, BUT THEY HAVE TROUBLE GOSSIPING EFFECTIVELY?
Neanderthals and archaic Homo Sapiens probably also had a hard time talking behind each other's backs
- a much maligned ability which is in fact essential for cooperation in large numbers! The new linguistic skills
that modern Sapiens acquired about 70 millennia ago enabled them to gossip for hours on end. Reliable information
about who could be trusted meant that small bands coud expand into larger bands and Sapiens could develop tighter
and more sophisticated types of coeration. This gossip theory might sound like a joke, but numerous studies support it.
Even today the vast majority of human communication - whether in the form of emails, phone calls or newspaper
columns [& myDiary] - is gossip?! It comes so naturally to us that it seems if our language evolved for this very
purpose!? Do you think that History Professors chat about the reasons for the First World War when they meet
for lunch, or that Nuclear Physicists spend their coffee breaks at scientific conferences talking about quarks?
Sometimes. But more often, they gossip about the professor who caught her husband cheating,
or the quarrel between the head of the department and the dean, or the rumours that
a colleague used his research funds to buy a Lexus?
Gossip usually focuses on wrongdoings!
Rumour-mongers are the original fourth estate,
journalists who inform society
about and thus can
protect it from
cheats and
freeloaders ...

11 dec 2017 - bewerkt op 14 dec 2017 - meld ongepast verhaal
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Asih, man, 81 jaar
   
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