Abstract
The vital role of entropy and information in the origin of life from non-living matter, and the evolution of living matter once it was established on Earth, are examined in this chapter. The origin of human and animal learning and memory in the signal transduction mechanisms of pre-Cambrian single-celled organisms of the primordial oceans is described. This phenomenon offers one of the strongest examples of conserved cell and molecular mechanisms in biology. The subsequent rise of multicellular organisms during the Cambrian explosion approximately 500 million years ago is discussed in the context of predator-prey relationships among the invertebrate animals that were living at that time. The predator-prey dynamic provided the intense selective pressure for the evolution of neural networks that were optimized for effective escape and predatory behaviors, as well as for the mechanisms of synaptic plasticity that underlie learning and memory. The rise of the vertebrates, and mechanisms of learning in birds and mammals, is described as the prelude to the emergence of the modern human mind with its amazing cognitive fluidity that gave rise to creativity, the power of abstraction and symbolic thought. The dawn of human meta-awareness in Homo sapiens sapiens, the human who knows he knows, is described and its implications for the emergence of existential fear is discussed. One of the consequences of increased intelligence, besides its ability to magnify fear of the unknown, is the corresponding compulsion to provide explanations for phenomena that are not understood. This characteristic of modern human thinking has been referred to as the cognitive imperative, and it is manifested in the magical thinking of early Homo sapiens, as well as contemporary children. Existential dread, the fear of annihilation of the ego at death, is discussed as the likely driving force for the emergence of mythology as proto-religious dogma that provided a sense of comfort and reduction of anxiety in our human ancestors, as well as in contemporary humans. A theory of the origin of evil in human behavior is offered, in which the overvaluation by humans of the hypothetical constructs that we generate to explain the unknown provides a powerful impetus for genocide and global war. We are the only animals that kill members of our own species to defend ideas, because we fear the loss of the security that our constructs of reality provide.
Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.
Michelangelo
Most of malaria’s victims lie in a belt across the middle of the Earth… . [they] share with us this moment in time, in the continued evolution and sculpting of the human genome – and the human genome takes notice.
Caporale ( 2003)
My strength is made perfect in weakness.
2 Corinthians 12:9
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Unidirectional because the photons emanate from the sun, which is a point-source of light.
- 2.
The Mollusca includes four classes of animals that can be found in fresh or salt water, and land: Gastropods (snails); Bivalvia (clams, scallops, mussels); and Cephalopods (octopuses , squid and Cuttlefish), and finally Polyplcophora (chitons). Many of these species are edible and are harvested along coastal regions or from lakes, streams and land. Saltwater Mollusks are thought to have provided a major source of food to H. sapiens as our ancestors migrated out of Africa along the coastal route of East Africa to the Arabian Peninsula and the Levant before moving into Europe and Asia.
- 3.
The impact of Schrödinger’s book was praised by H. Freeland Judson in The Eighth Day of Creation, which remains the definitive history of the revolution in molecular biology. Judson observed that Schrödinger provided the motivation for many young physics students to bring their skills and methods to the study of key questions concerning the nature of the hereditary material, as well as the structure and synthesis of proteins .
- 4.
Phosphorylation adds a phosphate group (PO43-) to another molecule.
- 5.
The ones not fixed to one location by attachment to a substrate, i.e. the ones that have locomotion.
- 6.
This is seen in the dead reckoning exemplified by a sand crab that meanders along a tortuous path on the beach, but nevertheless makes a “bee line” back to the safety of its burrow at the first sign of danger.
- 7.
I would like to thank a student in one of my classes at The University of Pennsylvania, Razeen Jivani, for calling my attention to this insightful interpretation of the scientific name for modern humans, H. sapiens sapiens.
- 8.
Somesthesis refers to the sensations of touch, temperature, pain, and proprioception (the sense of body position that derives from receptors in muscles, joints and tendons).
- 9.
Gestalt is a German word that may be translated as form or shape. It conveys the idea that the objects of reality should be viewed holistically not as collections of parts. Gestalt psychology attempts to understand the ability to acquire and maintain meaningful perceptions of reality. Gestalt psychology was developed in the Berlin school of experimental psychology and has had a wide-ranging influence in diverse fields of psychology to impact the understanding of perception and clinical psychology in particular. Gestalt psychology continues to be an influence in cognitive neuroscience, especially in regard to what has been called the binding problem. The binding problem refers to the mechanism by which activity of neural networks that encode the diverse discrete component features of a percept are reintegrated into the Gestalt perception of a holistic object in the world.
- 10.
Cytoarchitecture refers to the size, shape, distribution and number of neurons in a particular brain region, as well as details about how those neurons are connected to each other and other neurons elsewhere in the brain. It is what is seen and quantified when looking through the microscope at a section of brain tissue.
- 11.
As the brain matures, especially the prefrontal cortex, these hypothetical constructs become more reality based, but this is not always true in regard to inferences made concerning the thoughts and emotions of others in Theory of Mind constructs. Varying degrees of paranoia about the intentions of others are essentially errors in Theory of Mind constructs.
- 12.
In the next chapter, we will see that the apprehension of certain truth can only be achieved in the limited case of deductive logical proofs argued from true premises.
- 13.
It is perhaps no accident that the biblical allegory of Cain and Abel follows quickly on the heels of their parents eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge. In this story, Cain’s motive for killing his brother centered on what was essentially a theological dispute. Cain’s belief that Abel’s sacrifice was judged to be more-worthy and pleasing to God led to envy, anger and fratricide, because Cain feared the loss of God’s favor and the protection it would provide. The echo of this primal crime resonates throughout history in many examples of ideologically driven mass persecution and murder inspired and implemented by narcissistic and psychopathic leaders, such as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Idi Amin, and others who exploit differences in religious or political beliefs to further their own unconscious malignant agendas. The wisdom of humanity lies in the use of the enhanced cognitive skills that confer sapience on our species to understand reality and reduce fear of the unknown. The “original sin” of humanity is rooted in the overvaluation of the ideas and beliefs that sapience generates and the corresponding fear that competing ideas pose a mortal threat.
References
Caporale LH (2003) Darwin in the genome: molecular strategies in biological evolution. McGraw-Hill, New York, p 13
Charrier C et al (2012) Inhibition of SRGAP2 function by its human-specific paralogs induces neoteny during spine maturation. Cell 149:923–935
Denis MY et al (2012) Evolution of human-specific neural SRGAP2 genes by incomplete segmental duplication. Cell 149:912–922
Donald M (1991) Origins of the modern mind. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, p 108
Edelman G (2004) Wider than the sky. Yale University Press, New Haven
Gould SJ, Eldredge N (1977) Punctuated equilibria: the tempo and mode of evolution reconsidered. Paleobiology 3(2):115–151 p145
Green RE et al (2010) Divergence of Neandertal and human genomes. Science 328:710–722
Hotulainen P, Hoogenraad CC (2010) Actin in dendritic spines: connecting dynamics to function. J Cell Biol 189(4):619
Jenkins HM, Moore BR (1973) The form of the auto-shaped response with food or water as Reinforers. J Exper Analysis of Behav 20:163–181
Julien RM (2005) A primer of drug action: a comprehensive guide to the actions, uses, and side effects of psychoactive drugs worth publishers, New York, pp 60–88
Kandel ER (2000) The molecular biology of memory storage: a dialogue between genes and synapses. Nobel Prize Lecture
Kelly GA (1955) The psychology of personal constructs. Norton, New York
Koonin EV (2007) The biological big bang model for the major transitions in evolution. Biol Direct 2:21
Kyriakis JM, Avruch J (2001) Mammalian mitogen-activated protein kinase signal transduction pathways activated by stress and inflammation. Physiol Rev 81(2):807
Maier NRF, Schneirla TC (1935) Principles of animal psychology. Dover Publications, New York, pp 7–35
Mithen S (1996) Prehistory of the mind: the cognitive origins of art and science. Thames and Hudson, London
Newberg A, D’Aquill E, Rause V (2001) Why god won’t go away. Ballantine Books, New York, pp 54–55
Parkinson JS (1993) Signal transduction schemes of bacteria. Cell 73:657–871
Penrose R (2011) Cycles of time. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, pp 77–79
Rendu W et al (2014) Evidence supporting an intentional Neandertal burial at La Chapelle-aux-Saints. PNAS 111(1):81–86
Schrödinger E (1944) What is life. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 81–93
Schwarz SM (Winter 2013–2014) The mourning dawn: neanderthal funerary practices and complex responses to death. HARTS Minds J Humanit Art 1(3):1–14
Semendeferi K, Armstrong E, Schleicher A, Zilles K, Van Hoesen GW (2001) Prefrontal cortex in humans and apes: a comparative study of area 10. Am J Phys Anth 114:224–241
Tillich P (1952) The courage to be. Yale University Press, New Haven, pp 38–39
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Di Rocco, R.J., Coons, E.E. (2018). Paleopsychology: The Emergence of Mind in the Universe. In: Consilience, Truth and the Mind of God. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01869-6_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01869-6_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-01868-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-01869-6
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)