BIO 301M Chapter Notes - Chapter 1-2: Natural Selection, Plant Ecology, Biotic Component
Document Summary
About 500 generations ago humans were still hunter/gatherers. We like to link events even if they"re not connected, we want to understand and know things desperately in order to exploit our environment for our own ends. Our brains shaped by natural selection allow us to do fairly well for immediate events and simple local phenomena using our five senses and logic. Think things we can"t detect are phenomena or supernatural. Some believe that our tendency to believe in supernatural phenomena might have a genetic basis. Our ancestors sat around campfires telling stories on like what fungi to eat and stuff, origin of human knowledge, culture and beginning of our domination of planet earth. Language is a double edged sword words help us formulate concepts but at same time they limit the directions our thought processes can take. How we imagine world is constrained by words we develop. Nouns can have very different referents b/w humans.
