Journey to Being Human: Archaeology, History, and Technology

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering human evolution, historical eras, media ethics, philosophy of art, and the sociology of technology based on the lecture series.

Tools

Practical applications of remembered and collected experiences, described as embodiments of science.

Precept

A method of instruction through explanation or verbal transmission, which is more economical of life than instruction by example.

Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

The instinctive mental capacity in children that allows them to learn and produce language, as theorized by Noam Chomsky.

Reasoning

The ability to solve problems mentally using ideas, images, and symbols instead of going through a physical process of trial and error.

Ideology

A society's collection of superstitions, religious beliefs, loyalties, and artistic ideals that can be biologically useful for species survival.

Prehistory

The time period before humans developed writing, spanning from approximately $2.5\,\text{million}$ years ago to $1,200\,\text{B.C.}$

The Expensive Tissue Hypothesis

The theory that energy saved by having a smaller gut was reinvested into the expansion of a larger, more complex brain.

Sumeria

The civilization in Mesopotamia that formed cities like Uruk around $3000\,\text{BCE}$ and supported its culture through writing.

The Silk Road

Established in $130\,\text{BCE}$, this was the major trade conduit between China and the West until the fifteenth century.

Renaissance Humanism

An intellectual movement from $1400$ to $1500$ characterized by a revived interest in the classical world and the human experience rather than religion.

The Enlightenment

An intellectual movement occurring from $1650$ to $1800$, also known as the Age of Reason, that re-examined politics, economics, and science.

Liberal World Order

The international system created after World War II to promote global peace through organizations like the United Nations and the World Bank.

Continuous Partial Attention

A cognitive constraint in the digital age where persistent connection prevents the synthesis and integration of learned materials.

Bottle Neck Theory

A model by Donald Broadbent suggesting that selectivity prevents the brain from remembering two things simultaneously when stimuli are too high.

Lithography

A graphic art technique that allowed products to be marketed in large numbers and illustrated everyday life for the first time.

Aura

The uniqueness and authenticity of a work of art including its physical aging, history of ownership, and the ritual behind its creation.

Care Ethics

A moral framework emphasizing reciprocal relationships, listening, and maintaining a genuine concern for mutual growth.

Generalized Other

The abstract approach of traditional ethics that evaluates actions without specific knowledge of the individual or their circumstances.

Concrete Other

The approach in care ethics that reframes moral considerations to seek knowledge of individuals and their unique circumstances.

The Chinese Room

A thought experiment by John Searle arguing that machines lack true understanding because they only manipulate symbols based on programs.

Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT)

A procedure where a nucleus from a somatic cell is implanted into an enucleated egg to create a genetically identical embryo.

Species Essentialism

The view that a species is defined by a unique set of traits common to all its members, a perspective tracing back to Aristotle.

Species Nominalism

The view proposed by Michael Ghiselin that species should be defined strictly in terms of their origins and evolutionary history.

Technē

The Greek term for craftsmanship or art that incorporates wisdom ($\text{Wissen}$) as a deliberate human application of intelligence.

Ins-Werk-setzen

Martin Heidegger's term meaning "setting to work," referring to the concrete manifestation of life through technical action.

Détente

The easing of strained relations, applied here to human choices to minimize environmental impact and greed.

Cyberspace

Electronically generated environments in which individuals experience a location that is not reducible to physical space.

Technopoly

A society where technology is deified and the culture seeks authorization and finds satisfaction through technological systems.

Hyperreality

A postmodern condition described by Jean Baudrillard where symbols and simulations replace reality, often becoming more real than the original.

Technique

The totality of methods rationally arrived at for absolute efficiency in every field of human activity, as defined by Jacques Ellul.

Media Determinism

The concept that media systems and hardware architectures dictate human history, thought, and what can be remembered.