From: Ramez Naam (mez@apexnano.com)
Date: Wed Apr 16 2003 - 01:30:22 MDT
From: Christian Weisgerber [mailto:naddy@mips.inka.de]
> Ramez Naam <mez@apexnano.com> wrote:
>
> > We've been using fire to cook food for roughly 10 times as long as
> > we've had grammatical language.
>
> Actually, we have absolutely no idea for how long humans have
> had grammatical language, so you can't meaningfully use this
> as a reference point for comparisons.
I'm using the common conjecture that grammatical language arose around
40,000 years ago and fueled the "great leap forward".
You're right that there is no firm proof that this was when
grammatical language arose, but the circumstantial evidence appears to
have convinced most anthropologists.
cheers,
mez
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