Assuming that our theory is correct, the human race is currently in the grips of an Emergency Oversimplification procedure (EOP). This is a worldwide disease of the mind that we don’t know that we all have.

It started no more than about 6000 years ago when written language revolutionized our lives, kicking off inventions, weapons, and ultimately in the last half millennium mass media. There is now a rush of information into the human brain on a daily continuous basis.

Not only do the media pour in this complex and question-producing information, this info-density is also the product of citification, another result of written language. We now mostly live in each other’s faces while the brainwash drumbeat of media creates a ceaseless background context.

Havenotism (the belief that it is normal and appropriate for some individuals to have not) developed because certain individuals within the human race became more accomplished faster at the use of written language, inventions and weapons. Weapons and media are simply part of the inventing capability emergent from written language. Before written language, there was the use of inscribed and sculpted images to aid in the types of thought conducive to inventing things. But without written language, more complex inventions such as machines and machined weapons were very difficult to construct.

Written language not only captures and VISUALLY* freezes thoughts (which are therefore retrievable), it also trains the mind to think analytically about parts and wholes in a way that is visualizable. Imagery can become more complex when the mind is trained to use eyes and mind together in the process of written language. Inventions come about because of complex imagery and written language. Complex imagery cannot develop without the symbolic thinking and logic skills engendered by written language. Written language therefore stands as the most important invention of the human race.

It also brought on a temporary flood tide of ideas, which has hypnotized and intoxicated us all into this rapture we call EOP.

I say temporary because I am thinking of the time scale. Dinosaurs ruled the Earth for 150 million years. We have had written language for 6000 years, about 0.004% of the time humans will rule the Earth assuming we are as durable as dinosaurs. So as I said in the title of this posting, we have plenty of time as a race to get past EOP.

Best to all,

Bill

*Homo sapiens are a sub-branch of the family of primates, and the perception dominance of primates is visual – whereas for felines and canines it is olfactory (smell) and for dolphins it is auditory (hearing). Written language would never have been such an empowering and seminal invention for us if we were not visually dominant.