If you could really use a time machine to go back to the past, would you? Not me. Just how much would I have in common with someone, for example, from the 1800s? Just how out of place would I feel? How strongly would I feel the differences between myself and people from the past?
This post is a continuation of yesterday’s post regarding evolution and Harari’s book Sapiens. I’ve focused and commented on a few points of interest from the chapter “The Tree of Knowledge”.
Upright.
The most durable species ever (surviving for almost 2 million years) was one of the first: homo erectus (upright man). But before homo was walking around, he was living in trees. Living in trees was safer for him and his family than living on the ground where they could easily be attacked by predators. That’s why they built big nests to sleep in and moved around by swinging from tree to tree.
Brachiaton is the term used for arm swinging arboreal locomotion.
When the climate began to change and subsequently modify the environment, these early humans were forced out of the trees and onto the savannah. Once on the ground, they metamorphosized and started walking upright. With the development of bipedalism, our evolution took a big leap forward.
Hands now had a new role. The more hands did, the more humans learned thus helping the brain to evolve. The increased use of the hands brought about the concentration of nerves and haute couture muscles in the palms and fingers. Hands could now make tools that would facilitate labor and make us more productive.
Hands also changed our rapport with one another. Desmond Morris, in The Naked Ape, explains that walking upright dramatically changed our bodies. Male shoulders became wider as did females’ pubic bones. Upright, the sexual organs became more visible. The female breasts became more evident especially as they started getting bigger in size.
Hands could now permit us to hug and hold and caress. Upright, males and females could mate while looking one another in the eye. Eye contact made the rapport even more intimate. Walking upright changed our sexuality.
Fire.
Once upon a time, only gods had fire. Zeus, afraid that humans would become too powerful, forbade humans from having it. But the altruistic Titan, Prometheus, thought it unfair and decided to give humans fire anyway. Zeus, whose ego was bigger than his heart, punished Prometheus by chaining him to Mt. Caucasus where every day a vulture would come daily to eat the Titan’s ever-regenerating liver.
The gift of fire provided a significant step in human evolution. Fire made it possible to cook plants such as rice, potatoes, wheat that were not edible if raw. Cooking also helped kill germs and parasites in food.
Not only was cooked food more digestible, it took less time to chew. A chimpanzee can spend even 5 hours a day chewing food whereas a human, thanks to their food being cooked, spends only an hour. Furthermore, the way we chew affects our teeth and our jaws. New eating habits led to genetic modifications.
Large brains and long intestines consumed a lot of energy. Eating food that’s easily digested shortened the intestine permitting more energy to go to the brain. and this, too, helped humans evolve.
Immigrant, migrants, and emigrants.
About 70,000 years ago, sapiens from East Africa began migrating towards the Arabian Peninsula and the rate of evolution picked up speedNow there are two conflicting theories as to how human evolution continued:
1. Interbreeding Theory claims that as African immigrants moved around, they bred with other humans. People today are the result of this interbreeding.
2. Replacement Theory claims that the differences between species (including different mating practices) provoked incompatibility and revulsion. So, the species remained distinct one from the other.
We would not have evolved as we have had it not been for humans on the move.
“Homo” is a genus of great ape (family hominidae) that we’re a part of. This genus, that’s produced several species, began its evolution in Africa about 2.5 million years ago. But our species, the sapiens, began its evolution only 300,000 years ago. Although we sapiens are the only remaining species of the homo genus, our existence and subsequent evolution was possible because of those who came before us. Sapiens walked on their paths to make super highways.
Our evolution was gradual and slow. At a snail’s pace, we evolved from a simpler to a more complex being. We were sapiens, we were smart. But look at us now—what went wrong? We are no longer behaving intelligently. We are no longer evolving. We are, instead, degrading. Why? Why is humanity so carelessly destroying everything that took so long to evolve into existence?
There’s no need for me to give examples of what I’m talking about. All you need do is watch the news or read comments on social media.
This feeling of being surrounded by decadence is overwhelming. Suffocating. Alienating. Debilitating. And I need an explanation as to how we got here so I can take another road.
At present I’m reading Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011). Harari takes us on an odyssey through human history covering 13.5 billion years of prehistory and history.
“There were humans long before there was history” says Harari and these prehistoric humans were insignificant animals who had little impact on the environment. But that would all change with their evolution. And that evolution got a booster when different species began interbreeding thus increasing their genetic pool.
Humans evolved from the genus of apes known as Australopithecus aka “Southern Ape”. They evolved according to the environment they were in and how they were able to adapt to it.
When it comes to dating the past, timelines are always changing. Because new discoveries are being made, because new technologies help facilitate these discoveries, because new approaches in interpreting the information occur. Initially it was said that the homo habilis (Handy Man) came before homo erectus (Upright Man) because man likes to have everything easily categorized. But the evolution of man did not follow some kind of precise sequence with one species evolving directly from another. It’s more than likely homo habilis and homo erectus co-existed in in Eastern Africa for almost half a million years.
We are overlapped and juxtaposed.
Regardless as to what species came first, the transition from walking on all fours to walking in an upright position gave a big jump start to our evolution.
I’ve written about the importance of hands many times here. Because hands help us accomplish things. They can help create new mental pathways. They make it possible to better observe things because we can bring them closer to our eyes and because we can touch, manipulate, and explore them. Hands help us explore the world in a way that our eyes can’t. Hands help our brains to grow.
However, the body is built on a budget and big brains are heavy and a drain on the body. Having a bigger brain meant, says Harari, that more time was spent searching for food to feed that hungry brain. It also meant that muscles atrophied as humans diverted energy from biceps to neurons.
Big brains need big skulls, and big skulls are a problem during childbirth. So, for humans, natural selection favored earlier births making babies small enough to come out of momma. But this also meant that babies had to have extra care after their birth for a long time. Giraffes, zebras, horses, and pigs are just a few examples of animals whose offspring can stand up and walk the same day that they’re born. Human babies, however, are dependent and needy. Raising children requires constant attention thus, in prehistoric times, “it took a village to raise a child”.
Evolution is not just about bodies.
So for today, Harari’s book can take a rest and I can take a walk.
Oldest Known Neanderthal Engravings Were Sealed in a Cave for 57,000 Years, The art was created long before modern humans inhabited France’s Loire Valley +
Oldest Known Neanderthal Engravings Were Sealed in a Cave for 57,000 Years, The art was created long before modern humans inhabited France’s Loire Valley +
I’m writing this post for my Facebook friends to explain my absence. If I try to access to my FB page, I get this message:
It begins with “As part of laws in your region…” I live in Italy where, after a major investigation, the Guardia di Finanza (fiscal police) calculated that Meta should pay around 22 million euros in sales taxes. Furthermore, the European Union also fined Meta €1.2 billion for privacy violations. This lack of respect for my privacy that’s violated just so they can make more money is not something I want to be a part of.
Now Meta is giving me two options: either pay $9.99 monthly or give Meta free access to my private data that they can then use for their own needs. Obviously, I have no intention of paying them anything at all. Nor do I plan to let them have liberal access to my personal information.
Therefore, after reading FB’s Privacy Policy, I decided it would be best for me to avoid using Meta. It’s a long read but there are a couple of things that stood out:
“Information and content you provide. We collect the content, communications and other information you provide when you use our Products, including when you sign up for an account, create or share content, and message or communicate with others. This can include information in or about the content you provide (like metadata), such as the location of a photo or the date a file was created.”
It’s like being spied upon and that throws my biorhythms in a spin.
“Networks and connections. We collect information about the people, accounts, hashtags and Facebook groups and Pages you are connected to and how you interact with them across our Products, such as people you communicate with the most or groups you are part of. We also collect contact information if you choose to upload, sync or import it from a device (such as an address book or call log or SMS log history), which we use for things like helping you and others find people you may know and for the other purposes listed below.”
Facebook is also using private photos (also from Instagram) to train their AI team. In other words, your private photos are being used to feed the AI vortex. Who knows where your personal images could end up.
And the spying continues. Facebook, served with a warrant, gave chats between a mother and her daughter to Nebraska police who were investigating into an illegal abortion. And now a 17-year-old girl and her mother have been charged with a series of felonies and misdemeanors.
Then there’s the algorithm manipulation. Algorithims can spread fake news with ease and pilot the posts that are seen. They are not democratic and censor your own wants so that they can impose their own. You see what they want you to see.
All this collected data needs to be stored. And that storage is anti-ecological. But that’s for another post.
To abandon FB is not easy because it is the main means of communication I have with friends and family in the U.S. But, then again, there are always emails, no?
Hopefully, I will be able to post this on FB thanks to the WordPress “share” button. But if you wish to comment, write via Messenger (that, for some reason, I still have access to) because, as I can’t access to FB, I won’t be able to see your comment.
Meta Uses Your Instagram and Facebook Photos to Train Its AI—Here’s How to Stop It …. Meta is using your public Facebook posts, Instagram photos and captions, data from third-party services, and your chats with the Facebook AI chatbot to train its AI. If you live in the UK or EU, you have the option to stop Meta from using your personal data. As a US citizen or resident who does not belong to the UK or EU, you can only raise your voice against Meta using your information present on third-party platforms +
Meta FB loses EU on anti-trust crackdown…MetaPlatformsInc.’s Facebook lost its European Union court fight over a German antitrust order that homed in on the US tech firm’s power to cash-in on a vast trove of users’ data…EU slaps Facebook parent company Meta with record fine for privacy violations + Meta fined record $1.3 billion and ordered to stop sending European user data to US +
Meta gave police access to private Facebook messages that allegedly detailed a Nebraska teen’s plans to get an illegal abortion, bolstering local authorities’ cases against the girl and her mother… Meta complied with a search warrant from Norfolk, Nebraska police in early June, according to court records +
Reed Hastings is an American billionaire and co-founder of Netflix who supports using public money to help finance public schools +
The “PayPal Mafia” is a group of former PayPal employees and founders who have since founded and/or developed additional technology companies based in Silicon Valley. These include amoung many others: Tesla, Linkedin, and YouTube+
Pay Pal co-founder, Peter Thiel and JD Vance: What To Know About The Relationship Between Trump’s VP Pick And The Billionaire +
JD Vance and Mr. Paypal = Rachel Maddow says JD Vance’s rise is thanks to gay billionaire’s influence, not skill or merit + The name of JD Vance’s venture capital firm is a homage to fantasy author JRR Tolkien — and billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel +
Vance and Thiel’s relationship dates back to 2011, when the senator met Thiel following a talk the venture capitalist gave at Yale Law School that Vance has characterized as “the most significant moment of my time” at the institution, according to a blog post he wrote for Catholic magazine The Lamp + The Seven Thinkers and Groups That Have Shaped JD Vance’s Unusual Worldview +
The Rise of the American Oligarchy, What targeting Russia’s wayward billionaires revealed about our own…Peter Thiel has used a loophole in the tax code to stash $5 billion in a Roth IRA. While the IRS targets working-class Black Americans, the list of billionaires who have paid no income tax in recent years is long
Permission to use content you create and share: Some content that you share or upload, such as photos or videos, may be protected by intellectual property laws.
You retain ownership of the content that you create and share on Facebook and other Meta Company Products you use, and nothing in these Terms takes away the rights you have to your own content. You are free to share your content with anyone else, wherever you want. To provide our services, though, we need you to give us some legal permissions to use that content.
Algorithms, Manipulation, and Democracy PDF by Thomas Christiano: Algorithmic communications pose several challenges to democracy. The three phenomena of filtering, hypernudging, and microtargeting can have the effect of polarizing an electorate and thus undermine the deliberative potential of a democratic society. Algorithms can spread fake news throughout the society, undermining the epistemic potential that broad participation in democracy is meant to offer. They can pose a threat to political equality in that some people may have the means to make use of algorithmic communications and the sophistication to be immune from attempts at manipulation, while other people are vulnerable to manipulation by those who use these means. My concern here is with the danger that algorithmic communications can pose to political equality, which arises because most citizens must make decisions about what and who to support in democratic politics with only a sparse budget of time, money, and energy. Algorithmic communications such as hypernudging and microtargeting can be a threat to democratic participation when persons are operating in environments that do not conduce to political sophistication. This constitutes a deepening of political inequality. The political sophistication necessary to counter this vulnerability is rooted for many in economic life and it can and ought to be enhanced by changing the terms of economic life.
There are those times when we need to defend our ideals. But not everyone has great communications skills. Some have problems articulating what they need to say. Others are easily flustered when in a conflictual situation. That’s why it’s necessary to learn how to defend your ideals by developing a few basic communication skills.
Around the time of the last 2024 presidential debate, it was necessary that I have a serious discussion with an alpha male. I’d already learned some years before that, when discussing with a man about something important, it’s necessary not to cry and/or raise your voice. It’s also important to moderate the pace and tone. Because to see a woman calm and in control freaks men out and will get their attention.
So, using the info I already had combined with what I’d seen from Kàmala, I was ready to present my case. And it went magnificently. That’s why I’d like to share with you what I’ve learned:
Preparation is fundamental. If you must have an important “discussion”, write it out first. Writing is important because it forces us to articulate an idea. When we think about something, we do so in a very abstract way. Just because we have feelings does not mean we know how to express them. That’s why when we finally have a chance to speak our mind, we often fumble and then feel like fools. Preparation can tremendously help here.
Write it out and then be the editor of your own words. Narrow down what you have to say to just a few points. Simplify the language as much as possible. It will have more impact and will be easier for you to remember what it is you need to say.
Polititians, even those with years of experience, use teleprompters. If you easily become emotional, why not take your notes with you.
Set the mood. Be assertive but not aggressive.
Men have claimed for centuries that women are too emotional to oversee anything. But we have seen, especially in recent years, that it’s generally the opposite that’s true.
A face can say a thousand words. Learn to use the power of facial expression. Words are not as powerful as hard-core eye contact at the right moment.
Know those words that will distract and disorientate your listener. Words that will impose themselves so strongly on his ego that he will have difficulties contradicting you. Because all his psychic energy will be aimed towards disclaiming what you’ve said.
Kàmala’s trigger words were “rally size”.
After you’ve presented your “speech”, excuse yourself and politely walk away. No lingering allowed. You’ve said what you had to say and now “The quieter you become, the more you can be heard.” Rumi
Just because a man needs you doesn’t mean that he loves you.
Ariadne was the daughter of the Cretan king, Minos. Like most men of wealth and power, Minos was greedy. When sent a beautiful white bull from the sea meant to be sacrificed for Poseidon, Minos decided to keep the bull for himself. Poseidon was not pleased, and, like most gods, he was vindicative. To punish Minos, Poseidon had Pasiphae, Minos’ wife, fall in love and mate with the bull. This strange affair produced an offspring that was half man and half bull later known as the Minotaur. The Minotaur’s real name was Asterius and he was a cannibal.
As punishment for killing his son, Minos had forced the people of Athens to send him sacrificial victims for the Minotaur. Theseus had been sent to Crete as one of the potential sacrifices. But everything changed when, before being sent into the labyrinth, Theseus met and wooed the young and naïve Ariadne. Illiterate in love, she immediately fell for Theseus and decided to help him escape the Minotaur even if it meant putting her own life in danger. Ariadne gave Theseus a ball of yarn that, once tied to the entrance, was released little by little as Theseus walked. Like Hansel and Gretal who’d left pebbles to mark their way, it provided a means for Theseus to find his way out of the labyrinth once the minotaur was slain.
After they were safely out of the labyrinth, Theseus and Ariadne escaped towards Naxos. But once there Theseus dumped Ariadne and sailed for Athens without her.
Ovid’s Metamorphoses
Ovid was born 80 miles east of Rome in 43 BC. His father had sent him to Rome to learn rhetoric so Ovid could become a lawyer. Too bad for his dad that Ovid wanted, instead, to become a poet. Maybe it had something to do with his hormones. By the time he was thirty, Ovid had already been married three times. He had sex on the brain and primarily wrote erotic poems in elegiac meter. His “Ars Amatoria” (The Art of Love) gave instructions on love and seduction making him a very popular poet. But after all the Cleopatra scandals, Emperor Augustus wanted to push moral and social reform. Ovid’s erotic poetry was not compatible with the emperor’s new moralism. Augustus took offense at Ovid’s lecherous writings and ordered that his books be burned and that Ovid be exiled (note that this is Augustus of the Ara Pacis who was supposed to be such a fair guy). Ovid was sent to a small town in what’s now modern-day Romania.
Despite all his pleas, Ovid was never allowed to return to Rome and, instead, forced to died far away from home.
While banished on the shores of the Black Sea, Ovid completed his finest work, Metamorphosis, an epic poem that chronicles the world from creation to the death of Julius Cesear.
The theme of Metamorphoses is revealed in the title. Metamorphoses is a book about transformation. It’s a book that explores the concept of change. If you don’t like something, just change it. This includes yourself. But be careful because your transformation will affect others.
Some transformations that happened in Metamorphoses:
Niobe was insecure. This made her brag a lot and minimize others. At the celebration in honor of Leto, Niobe bragged that, unlike Leto who only had two kids, she had 14. Apollo and Artemis, Leto’s two kids, did not take kindly to their mom being dissed in public. To defend her honor, Artemis murdered Niobe’s daughters and Apollo murdered Niobe’s sons. Overwhelmed by the death of her children, Niobe fled to Mt. Sipylus where she was turned into stone (as described by Pausanias).
Because Niobe is remembered for the tragic loss of her children and for having been transformed into stone, representations of her are often used as tombstones for children’s grave such as these at Rome’s Verano Monumental Cemetery.
Daphne was a very beautiful nymph. Unfortunately, Apollo, with the help of Cupid’s arrow, had the hots for her. Daphne ran and called out to her dad, the river god Peneus, for help. Her dad turned Daphne into a laurel tree but that didn’t stop Apollo’s passion. He stroked her limbs and picked her leaves and declared that he would wear them in his hair. And from then on laurel crowns would be worn on the heads of the royal and the victorious. (Even now, in Italy, graduating university students wear wreaths of laurel on their heads).
Galatea was a statue created by Pygmalion. Pygmalion, sculptor and king, was such a misogynist that he’d promised himself a life of celibacy. To keep from thinking about sex, he’d stay awake at night sculpting stone. Since no perfect woman existed, he decided to create one for himself. Pygmalion worked day and night on the statue and fell in love with it once it was finished. He named it Galatea meaning “she who is milk white” then hungrily kissed her mouth and caressed her breasts. Of course, having been made from stone, Galatea was cold and could not return his effusions.
Aphrodite’s feast was approaching. Pygmalion went to her temple and begged the goddess to turn his statue into a real woman. Impressed by his begging and the beauty of the statue, Aphrodite consented. When Pygmalion returned home, Galatea ran to kiss him on the mouth. A short time later, the ex-statue and her creator were married.
George Bernard Shaw liked this story so much that he reimagined it and wrote Pygmalion (which was later reimagined for the film My Fair Lady which was later reimagined for Pretty Woman).
Transformations can be physical but psychological as well.
“The difference between a flower girl and a lady is not the way she behaves but the way she is treated.” Eliza Doolittle
Ovid had been physically exiled but women were mentally exiled every day then as they are now. Women also know much about physical transformation thanks to menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause. But they also know about how, not living in a society compatible with your own biology, you must constantly adapt and change.
Since men have always been the ones to set the standards, today many women writers are rewriting history to make it their own. Many are rewriting Greek mythology from a female point of view. One such mythographer is Marina Warner. Intrigued by Ovid, Marina has reimagined him from a female point of view. In her short story “Adriane After Naxos”, Marina describes Adriane’s life after Theseus.
She’s living on an island just for women. There’s a convent there populated by women who wanted to get away from the male dominated world. It’s a celibate community that observes a rule of silence. The island is lush with an abundance of food. Trying to keep a paradise in order is not easy. “So much fruitfulness: like a wave, its greatest expansion is also its breaking point., when the fruit will lose the shape that gives it its identity, its integrity.”
The eldest member of the community is Hypatia, a philosopher and astronomer who once lived in Alexandria. Having had more experience with life, the women count on her for advice.
One morning Ariadne was scanning the sea when she saw a boat sailing towards the island bringing with it news that would shock her. The Minotaur had not been killed after all by Theseus, just neutered. Now a botanist and vegan, the Minotaur cruised the islands looking for plant specimens. That’s how he arrived on the island where Ariadne was living, an island inhabited only by women. These women had worked hard to have a place of their own where they weren’t intimidated or imposed upon by men. Thus they were not pleased about having a mutated male bull on their island of refuge. However, Hypatia said, “we have no quarrel with men who have no quarrel with us.”
The decision as to whether or not the Minotaur could stay would all depend upon how he answered this question:
“Who is superior, the man or the woman?”
Hypatia knew that a man, simply because he is a man, would answer “a man”. But, to get what he wanted from a woman, a man might lie and say, “a woman”.
Instead, the Minotaur responded like this: In botany there’s a phenomenon known as enantiomorphosis. It is a phenomenon widespread in nature. On a vine the tendrils twist one way as they leave the stem, they twist another way to fasten themselves; in the center, where they meet, the spirals stop, and the join shows no kink. The horns of a deer mirror similarity one to another as do pairs of tusks, pairs of wings, and even our own pairs of hands.
Women already knew that women and men are mirrored opposites, the same but different. Like looking in a mirror, we know ourselves only via reflection.
The women voted and decided that the Minotaur’s had been a fair reply. Therefore, he was allowed to stay on the island to collect plant samples.
The Narrative Within 