HUM 101 - CSUN Prof. Forman

Midterm - triune brain, evolution, Dunbar's number, science ficiton eras, queer-coding. intertextuality. NOT including The Matrix and Gattaca

Evolution

The process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of Earth

Dunbar’s Number

Proposed by Robin Dunbar, it’s a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. These are relationships in which an individual knows who each person is and how each person relates to every other person (5=intimates, 15=close personal friends, 50=friends, 150=acquaintances, 500=strangers)

Queer coding

The act of making a non-queer character appear so through discreet details

Intertextuality

The relationship between different texts

The Triune Brain

Proposed by American physician and neuroscientist Paul D. MacLean, a model of the evolution of the vertebrate forebrain and behavior

Red section (reptilian brain)

• Safety, sustenance, sex, and procreation

• Decision making, autopilot, fight or flight

• Brain stem and cerebellum

• Evolved 248-206 million years ago

• Shared with reptiles (fish)

Yellow section (animal brain/ mammalian/ limbic)

• Love and emotion

• Memories, habits, decisions

• Limbic system

• Evolved 206-144 million years ago

• Shared with older mammals (dogs, cats, mice)

Green section (neocortex)

• Intellectual tasks, thought, word, deed, and creation

• Rational thinking, reasoning

• Language, abstract thought, imagination, consciousness

• Evolved 55-24 million years ago

• Shared with monkeys and chimpanzees

Gothic era (1818-1945)

• Crumbling castles

• Robots

• Reanimated corpses

• Frankenstein

Modern period (1945-1996)

• Atomic bombs

• Mushroom clouds

• Giant mutated monsters

• Godzilla

Post-modern era (1996-today)

• Human cloning

• Splicing

• Hybridized creatures

• Genetic engineering

• Gattaca