0097 The earliest stone tools show us that, once a team becomes both successful and long-lived, the disjuncture between the two selection pressures remains.  Once a new team habit settles in, individuals adapt to the habit over generations, rather than the habit adapting to the individuals.

One clue to the validity of this conclusion is found in the stability of stone tools.  

Here is a timeline.

0098 Oldowan stone tools are made the same way for almost a million years.  To me, this suggests that the perspective level of the following interscope does not change, because the team activity persists over generations.  Improvements in the Oldowan team activity are not as crucial as discovering another lucrative team activity.  The Oldowan team is one.  We do not know how many others there are.

0099 But, what about the individuals that participate in the Oldowan team activity?  Are they subject to natural selection for abilities to assess which stones to choose for rapid construction and whether a carcass is worth scavenging?

Yes, the content and situation levels of the above interscope show features where natural selection can operate.  Obviously, there are many specialized cognitive abilities that can be rewarded, through natural selection, over many generations.  Indeed, while the Oldowan stone-tool “kit” remains stable, a new species of human evolves, complete with substantially larger brains.

0100 After Homo erectus appears in the fossil record in Africa, a few more hundred thousand years pass before the team changes.  Mithen describes Oldowan and Acheulean stone tools in detail, but does not elaborate on how they were used.

0101 Oldowan stone tools are utilitarian and made on the spot.  Opportunistic scavenging seems to be the likely definition of success_2c.

Acheulean stone tools are more sophisticated and are made ahead of time.  Perhaps, this implies new ways to extract food.  Homo erectus hunt some sort of creature that can be taken down with what appears to be a fairly large stone tooth.  This is not the only possibility, but it is the one that appears in the following figure.

0102 Perhaps, the Acheulean stone-tool kit is used by more than one team.

It is difficult to know, without time travel.

If we moderns could time travel, I suspect that we would be amazed at the variety of extractive technologies that Homo erectus masters prior to the domestication of fire.  Homo erectus migrates out of Africa and into Eurasia around a million years ago.  Then, along with the domestication of fire, more refined Acheulean stone tools appear.  New stone tools imply that new teams are constellating, this time with hunting definitely in mind.

0103 Here is the ongoing timeline of hominin evolution.

0154 What a banner!

0155 The evolutionary anthropologist, Steven Mithen, publishes a book in 2024 with the full title, The Language Puzzle: Piecing Together The Six-Million Year Story Of How Words Evolve (BasicBooks: New York).  The book purports to describe the evolution of “language”.  But, what is “language”?  Is language the sole province of speech?  Of course not, deaf communities practice so-called “sign-language”.  I call this practice, “fully linguistic hand-talk”.

0156 Despite the reality that language can be performed in two modalities, manual-brachial gesture and voice, Mithen rules out the gestural origins of language.  Consequently, he faces the challenge of portraying the vocal origins of language.

0157 The problem?

Consider the following comparison.

0158 Two features are integral to language.

The first is displacement.  “Displacement” means that “the referent of the word does not have to be present”.

The second is symbolic operations. Symbols are sign-relations whose sign-objects are based on habit, convention, law and so forth.  Within any symbolic order, a symbol must be sufficiently different from any other symbol as to be readily recognized.  A finite set of symbols constitutes a symbolic order.  Symbolic operations constellate within a symbolic order.  One name for such symbolic operations is “grammar”.

0159 Archaeological evidence for bipedalism predates 3.5 Myr (million of years ago).  At this time, vocalizations are not only involuntary, but they tell everyone that a referent is present. It is the opposite of displacement.  Vocalizations denote placements.

Of course, that means that involuntary calls may be labeled indexes, in so far as the call indicates a presence.  That means that involuntary calls are indexes.

But, an involuntary call cannot be called a linguistic sign-relation whose sign object is determined by pointing, contiguity, cause and effect and so forth.  And, that is an index, too.

0161 Okay, that may be confusing.

Vocal calls are indexes in the same way that an emergency alarm is an index.  The alarm cannot tell me much more than “an emergency is happening”.  That is not displacement.

Manual-brachial gestures can point to something, even when that something is not present (like the location of the sunrise).  Manual-brachial word gestures allow displacement.

0162 In regards to symbolic operations, consider taking the metaphor, a word is like a piece in a jigsaw puzzle,literally.  Then, say, 1.7 million years before present time, while I am digging tubers with my team, not far from the forest’s edge, a vulture lands in a nearby tree and one of us notices that… uh oh… there is a jaguar in that tree.  The vulture sees the jaguar.  The jaguar eyes the little hominins.  We know why the vulture decides to land.  The vulture wants to see what happens.

Everyone gathers what tubers they have into leaf-baskets.  The elder of the team signs the following gestures to me and I reply.

0163 Elder signs [point-YOU][image-RUN][point-RIGHT][image-THROW].

Then in reply, I say, [point-ME][raise ROCK].

0164 Each iconic and indexal gesture-word has already been honed through usage to be sufficiently different from any other word-gesture (in our team-oriented lexicon) as to be instantly recognized.  So, the imagery and the indications snap together into one Gestalt, shared by both elder and myself.

Of course, Mithen discusses displacement and grammar, but not in this manner.  He proposes that displacement for the vocal channel involves synaesthesia, that is, cross-modal sensing.  But, how would this apply to the problems faced by teams, while extracting food under dangerous conditions (which Michael Tomasello labels “collaborative obligatory foraging”)?

0165 So, what is the key point?

Mithen claims to be solving a six-million year old process. But, his metaphor of the jigsaw puzzle, when taken literally, takes us through the period that stretches from the start of bipedalism to the domestication of fire.  This corresponds to Michael Tomasello’s “period two”.

Indeed, Mithen is not aware that his choice of metaphors undermines his claim against the gestural origin of language.

0166 Is that sort of funny?

In what way?

Technically, before the domestication of fire, hand-talk is protolinguistic.  Each team has its own protolanguage.  Plus, this protolanguage is not fully linguistic because it does not permit grammatically correct counter-intuitive statements, such as:

[imageTREE][point to EYES][roll EYEs back and forth]

0167 Oh, yes.  Our kind evolves in a surveillance society.  And we are on the menu.

The trees have eyes and are watching.

0066 Before I step further into chapter one, I must take a guess as to where Hegel’s term, “synthesis” resides.

In one way, “synthesis” resides in the normal context₃.  In another way, it resides in the potential₁, along with ‘truth’₁.  Since, the [substance] of [wealth and power]₂ emerges from (and situates) its potential₁, then there must be something more than ‘honesty’₁ in ‘truth’₁,  ‘Truth’₁ must be accompanied with ‘something substantial’, that is, ‘synthesis’₁.

Here is the resulting nested form.

0067 Chapter one opens with a question, “Who cannot handle the truth?”

May I point to those with capital and organizational excess, as well as to those with social influence and institutional excess?

Oh, those excesses.  It seems as if the former pulls the contiguity upwards by reifying [wealth] and the latter drags the contiguity downwards by reifying [power].

0068 Zizek, for his part, associates “truth” with a normative picture of a state of accord.  Accord of what?  Accumulation and order?  Thesis and antithesis?  As such, truth₁… and its synthesis₁… develops within a particular historical reality₂… that is… a particular civilizational moment₂.

0069 Does Lacan’s term, jouissance, associate to the potential of ‘truth and synthesis’₁?

It may well do so.  For Christians, the [substance] that is contiguous with Father and Son is historically contingent. Why?  One God has only one opportunity to actually enter the flow of the eternal present.  If God enters the flow of the eternal present multiple times, then each time He produces a new dyad, a new historically contingent “timestamp”, if you will.  Each timestamp is a divine mediation.

0070 It is not that timestamps do not abound in Christian… er… Jewish revelation.  There is Adam (corresponding to the start of the Ubaid archaeological period), Noah (touching base with the Uruk), and Abraham (pointing to the end of the Sumerian civilization), followed by Moses and King David.  Then, the exile to Babylon, followed by a return. Construction on the Second Temple begins.  During this time, the five books of Moses come together like never before. Yet, no one imagines that the Pentateuch would one day be labeled, “the Old Testament”.

0071 All these timestamps constitute a thesis, and Jesus marks the antithesis.  

Now, even though the substance (that is, the contiguity) of Father and Son₂ will change, depending on the winds of the Holy Spirit₃, the potential of ‘truth and synthesis’₁ becomes more and more apparent.  The synthesis₁ includes the potential of one God₁.  The potential of one God₁ reminds me of Zizek’s use of the term, “parallax”.  From one location, I see the Father as matter and thesis.  I see the Son as form and antithesis.  But, from another location, the Speaker is matter and the Word is form.  Thesis and antithesis depends on where I stand.

Here, the terms, “thesis” and “antithesis” are bound, into a thing₂, by a substance.  That substance includes [begat] and [dies with].  Father and Son are two real elements that, in theory, are distinct and separable, just like the real elements of matter and form are theoretically distinct and separable.  But, they cannot be separated without losing sight of the thing itself₂.

0072 When we lose track of the thing itself₂, we cannot understand.

Where have the normal context₃ and potential₁ gone?

0073 Zizek mentions an “irreducible oscillation”.  Here, the oscillation is among matter [and] form₂, particle [and] wave₂, Father [and] Son₂, capital [and] social₂, accumulation [and] the exercise of order₂.  The oscillation is irreducible because that is the nature of Peirce’s category of secondness.  Secondness consists of two contiguous real elements. One real element cannot be reduced to the other real element.  Secondness follows the logics of contradiction and noncontradiction.

What is disturbing about secondness?

What is contradictory₂ and what is not contradictory₂ will change with the normal context₃ and potential₁.  

0074 What does this disturbance imply?

Zizek’s parallax belongs to the realm of potential₁.  “Parallax” labels the optics of a monadic unity that underlies a quizzical dyadic actuality₂ that changes with its normal context₃.

0151 So, why is Lacan not a Buddhist?

Well, there is more to objet a_2c and [petit objet a]_2c than illusion.

If Buddhist enlightenment is all about transcending ontological realness, then the adept who attains enlightenment should just wither away from lack of jouissance.  If that happens, then all the insight that the adept has acquired (like capital!) cannot pour (like [wealth and power]) into exercises that train other adepts within Buddhist institutions (like social!).

0152 Zizek points out that Buddhism’s own mandate acknowledges that overcoming illusion is not all there is.

What is the Buddhist mandate for the adept who achieves enlightenment?

The adept must remain in order to guide others.

Here is a picture.

0153 From my brief foray into the topic of the Lebenswelt that we evolved in, I know what an evolutionary anthropologist would label this [petit objet a]_2c.  The label is “altruism”.

[Altruism] is [wealth and power].

Yes, [altruism] is the contiguity within the actuality_2c of the Buddhist mandate.

But, these labels are explicit abstractions that belong to our current Lebenswelt.

0154 So, let me review.

There is a difference between an thing encountered and a thing understood.

0155 The first step in going from encounter to understanding is to regard the thing as an example of Peirce’s category of secondness.  So, when I encounter some good clay, I recognize that it is suitable for making a pot.  Both the clay and the pot constitute – what Lacan calls – an objet a.  The [substance] is petit objet a.  Petit objet a says, “Hey, this it the hylomorphe… er… ‘thing’… that you are looking for.”

0156 The second step on the path to understanding is to conjure a normal context_3a and potential_1a for the actuality_2a.  Here, my understanding depends on my familiarity with the potter’s wheel.

0157  If all I wanted to do is acquire a clay pot by exercising my social and technical know-how, then the story would end with content-level understanding.

But, in the prior examples, it does not.  Here is a picture of a virtual nested form in the category of secondness.  A perspective-level actuality_2c virtually brings a situation-level actuality_2b into relation with the potential of a content-level actuality_2a.

0158 If I ask the clay, “What do you get out of this?”

The answer comes back, “Nothing.”

And weirdly, it is the nothing inside the clay where people brew their tea.

Does that sound like “a pair of lacks”?

0159 Now, when I shift from a piece of clay on the content level, to an adept training in the Buddhist tradition, can I say that the adept is a piece of clay?

Does the adept empty himself or herself in order to gain happiness?

0160 The adept, like the clay, creates a hollow in which the objet a of the day can brew, releasing its aromatic [petit objet a], which tells the untrained mind, “This is the reality that you should buy into.”

This will make you happy.

A beautiful, high quality, clay pot is on sale today, at reduced price!

0161 But, what about the one my grandmother gave to me?

Destroy it. Replace it. Then, brew your tea with improved satisfaction.

The adept can see through the disturbance, contain the disturbance, release the disturbance.

It is as simple and as elegant as brewing a pot of tea.

Zen style.

0162 In sipping an illusion down to its dregs, the adept feels happiness.  This is the happiness of the {acquisition of enlightenment [wealth and power] release from the illusions that people are buying}_2c.  [Wealth and power] is not what we think it is.  The contiguity between acquisition and the exercise of order is dangerous.  So, why not simply let the suffering go?

“Oh wait!”, the Master intones, “Remember your form.”

0163 Surely, the greatest manifestation of [wealth and power] is what evolutionary anthropologists call [altruism].  Who can afford to give with no expectation of return?  No one can.  The adept begs for his food and for alms, so others can give and expect no thing in return.  Giving to a Buddhist monk is a moment of enlightenment.

0164 Zizek is correct in that Buddhism does not really grasp how jouissance_1x, objet a_2x, [petit objet a]_2x and the big Other_3x are radically intersubjective… or should I say?… “suprasubjective”.  They are inscribed, so to say.  But, they are not inscribed like pen on paper.  They are inscribed like the contiguity between pen and paper. {Pen [inscribe] paper}₂is the actuality₂ that requires understanding.  The inscription itself only requires recitation.

0165 With that, allow me to inscribe an observation.

Buddhism seems to put the evils of Soviet and Chinese Communism into the basket labeled “suffering”.

But, what about “evil”?

Are show trials evil?

Here is the observation as a virtual nested form in the category of secondness.

0166 On the content level, the normal context of a Stalinist state_3a brings the dyadic actuality of {policy failures [need for blame] show trials}_2a into relation with the possibility of ‘continuing current operations’_1a.

On the situation level, the normal context of broadcasting_3b brings the dyadic actuality of {accusation [constitutes] theatrical drama}_2b or {illusion [transaction] hollow satisfaction}_2b into relation with the possibility of ‘mollifying dissatisfaction with current operations’_1b.

On the perspective level, the normal context of the Relativist One_3c, the one who stands outside of all other jurisdictions, brings the dyadic actuality of {the projection of guilt as a judicial acquisition of “righteousness” [wealth and power] the social ordering of all when the accused confesses guilt}_2c into relation with the potential of  ‘a synthetic truth’_1c, which claims that current operations are both necessary and inevitable and well… do we feel the jouissance_1c?

0167 Oh, it all must make sense, since, if current operations fail, then we enter the night of the world.

Nobody wants that.