I don’t believe humans had a weak primitive mind that has improved with time. There is no direct link to evolving superior present human thinking just from the passing of time. There are so many unqualified people who practice (preach) bad science or create it, there is no real truth, only assumptive thinking. I’m included in that group, so let me preach a different view from my primitive mind’s view.
What if most humans, 10,000 years or more ago had the same mind capacity we have today? What if their minds were actually stronger and “better working” than today? I am talking about mind power or ability to reason. What if we have become weaker at that function than “primitive” humans because of our interruption with natural selection and the evolution improvement process? We may well be the only species who maintain the survival of all and interbreed with our weak. That’s not a condemnation, just an observation.
How can I vainly believe we are inherently “smarter” than early man because we are “civilized” and have developed more technical abilities (tools) and wonderful “stuff”. What if that is intensely false? We have folks today that think aliens from space are more likely to have built the pyramids than the Egyptians who weren’t “smart” enough 3,000 – 4,000 years ago to do so.
Today, my mind may in many ways have less ability than earlier humans. Some of us get glimpses of a “sixth sense” that may well have been fully exploited by our ancestors. Perhaps a survival sense? Many lower animals have a migration sense on both land and sea that insure survival. Salmon know their birth stream. What do I remember?
What if we are now “over the hump” of our brain development and capacity? I have long heard the assumption that present humans use only a fraction of our brain’s capacity. What if this is not room for expansion but rather powers lost. Abandoned spaces left over from previous ability tenants? Something like our vestigial tail and other unused human parts.
What if early humans could memorize 1,000 times better than I do today? How about 10,000 times? They didn’t write things down because they didn’t have to. They kept everything in their head by memorizing stories (legends) passed down through the generations. Perhaps they memorized every movement in the sky because that is what they could see.
Eventually, they took measurements and made markings. Their “writings” became word pictures for spoken words. Glyphs are not primitive, they are beautiful human creations. Our modern “Roman Alphabet” used here is an ugly invention by comparison to detailed glyphs but requires less visual brain retention and works “faster”. We try to spice it up with variations in font. We all start to read words as pictures, not the letters. Believe it or not.
Today, I don’t have to remember, I can take notes… Those notes are much easier to share so why bother to memorize?
We study remote jungle tribes of today in belief that this is the way humans lived 10,000 years ago. I ask why? Is it because they don’t read or write? What if these people are the spin offs and decaying remains from the more powerful “civilized” minds of long ago? I believe the human mind adapts to whatever environment contains it. When given a challenge to “improve” it can adapt, without stimulation it becomes relaxed. Personally, I always push myself to learn more. I don’t ever want to become satisfied with just what I already know.
It is more likely that all high civilizations are doomed by their interdependent nature. As human ability expands, it depends more on the sharing and work abilities of others. This dependency is both our strength as humans and our weakness in time of global survival crisis. Climate change looms as one of those crisis.
We have seen many ruins of advanced (and lost) civilizations. The Aztec and Mayans, the pyramid Egyptians and even the mighty Romans declined. Who is left, the survival mode tribes living in the jungle? So maybe that is not the starting place of civilized humanity but rather the ending. Blessed are the meek as they shall inherit the earth.
I’m no expert. I made this all up. But it’s a thought. I enjoy using my mind and criticizing experts. I do know that experts once declared Earth to be the center of (their) universe. Wrong, but they were very smart in other ways. So it is today.