TST Trainer
Takeaways
MODE:
~
5 minutes
of takeaways.
Ancient Humans.
10 random takeaways.
1.
The so-called Cognitive Revolution is best understood not as a single switch flipping on, but as the latest major phase in a much longer evolutionary journey. Brain size, EQ, language, memory, and symbolic thought all point to a gradual rise in human cognitive complexity across multiple ancient human species.
2.
Quote:
- Charles Darwin.
- 1859.
From History:
In On the Origin of Species, first published in 1859, Darwin gave only a short nod to human origins, but it was enough to point the future in a new direction. That small sentence rang the bell for what would later become paleoanthropology.
3.
From History: 2.3 Million BCE
92,000 Generations Ago
To understand the mind, we have to remember that thought evolved. Homo habilis reminds us that intelligence did not arrive all at once with modern humans. It settled in gradually: hand, eye, memory, planning, and need working together. The human mind began as survival, then slowly became imagination.
4.
Because spoken language leaves no fossils, science must infer its origins indirectly. What we see instead is a growing convergence of anatomy, cognition, and social complexity pointing to early proto-languages long before Homo sapiens. Language wasn’t a single invention—it was an evolutionary process.
5.
From History: 80 Million Years Ago (+/- 10 million years)
Enlarged neocortex
Play evolved as one of the group survival traits. Lower play abilities evolved in mammals like rodents about 190 million years ago. Higer play abilities evolved in mammals like cats about 80 million years ago.
6.
Since neanderthals painted in caves in Spain 70,000 years ago, that hints that our common ancestor 440,000 years ago also possessed symbolic thought.
7.
From History: ~3.72 Billion Years Ago (after prokaryotes)
Mechanical sensitivity to pressure and membrane stretch
By 3.72 billion years ago, before vision, before smell, before hearing — life learned to feel force. Plants, fungi, and animals all inherited this ancient cellular technology. In animals it became advanced and neural, but its roots lie in the physics of membranes and pressure itself.
8.
When we estimate ancient human numbers from genetic ancestry, and conclude we descended from a “genetic” population of a few thousand, we risk overlooking entire lineages that left no living descendants. Opening the mind to that limitation allows for a broader and perhaps more realistic view of how many ancient humans once roamed the Earth, interacted with one another, and shaped their environments.
9.
From History: 375 Mya
Complex Brains; Long-Term Memory; Simple Sentience.
Within Phylum Chordata, the lobe-finned fishes of Class Sarcopterygii were among the lineages pushing vertebrate life into new environments. By about 375 million years ago, some of these animals likely depended on long-term memory to track food, water, and safe movement between habitats. In forms like Tiktaalik, memory was becoming part of the survival toolkit for life at the edge of land.
10.
Writing systems emerged as a permanent way to document what was said. Writing systems either represent full words, the syllables that make up words, or our basic sounds.
The End. Refresh for another set.
TST Trainer
(c) 2025-2026 TouchstoneTruth.
Writing and coding by Michael Alan Prestwood.
(c) 2025-2026 TouchstoneTruth.
Writing and coding by Michael Alan Prestwood.
