Origins of Human Cognition

     Hey Steemians recently my mind has been fixed on concepts relating to consciousness and the human experience, So I’ve decided to discuss some ideas with you. Before we go further let me make it clear I do not believe that I have a solid enough grasp on any of these concepts to be considered credible. This is rather to entertain and to share ideas. 

      For this post I will be discussing the tripping ape hypothesis. For the sake of this discussion I'm going to use the word consciousness to define organisms aware of their environment, and the term sentience to describe the consciousness particularly of a human. The purpose of this discussion is a potential explanation of the cognitive gap that appears to be apparent between humans and other animals. How wide the cognitive gap is between humans and other animals is debatable. However based on general observation there does appear to be a gap, and if there is no actual gap in cognitive capacities there is surely a gap in how much our species has displayed its cognitive capacity.

     Now the tripping ape hypothesis provides a possible explanation for this gap. It assumes that the curiosity of our pre-sentient ancestors was stimulated by psychedelic substances in such a way that they were able to develop advanced cultures. Psychedelic substances could be the foundation of language, mathematics, spirituality, agriculture, technology and many other aspects of the modern human experience.

      What is it about psychedelics that makes them a possible explanation for sentience? Most anyone who has tried psychedelics will testify to a few common but fascinating effects that they have. Examples: Having a strong sense of synergy with one's environment (oneness with everything), traveling down philosophic and mental rabbit holes you never imagined(extreme out of the box thinking), getting on the “same trip” as another, and euphoria comparable to grasping divinity. I’ll take the aspects I listed previously, and provide brief reasoning as to why these psychedelic effects may have been responsible for their conception.

      I’ll start with language. Many if not most animals have methods of communication some even display levels of communication which appear to be, or are on par with, language. Such as dolphins. However the ancestors of sentient humans, and our modern genetic cousins do not seem to display a unique need or desire for articulate vocal communication. While under a psychedelic experience the things you think and feel are astonishing, and your ability to tune into your environment can often have a legitimate and vast increase.

      I believe that the profound nature of this experience would lead individuals to be near desperate for a way to convey their experiences onto another. With the heightened ability to tune into your environment, under the right conditions, reading body language and understanding what another needs to be told, or shown, in order to grasp the concept within your mind becomes almost a second nature. This becomes especially true when all individuals involved are also tripping. This is because of the “same trip” effect I mentioned before. 

      When individuals can get onto the same trip as another the number of words and expressions required to share an idea drops dramatically and complex articulate concepts can be shared with relative ease. It is in fact necessary for this to be the case with many thoughts during the experience as much of what you think while tripping has no proper translation. You simply have to trust the few sounds and actions you do make can trigger their mind into formulating the same concept within your mind. As individuals grow accustomed to the process of sharing ideas in this way they take back more and more of the ability to their everyday experience, and eventually the culture is able to share articulate concepts in simple ways without the requirement of a psychedelic experience. 

      Now language development would be a long process, and what concepts they share to develop this language will be relative to the needs and desires of individuals. This is where the other aspects come into play. Your curiosity is through the roof while tripping and you are bound to test a few hypotheses or methods. One might realize while tripping that gathering food can be made simple if you control where it grows and that you can encourage growth by watering buried seeds. Or that you can use an object's geometry to minimize the work required to accomplish a task like pots, wheels, and wedges. Or that supplies for harsh seasons can be gathered counted and rationed using mathematics. 

      It is also not uncommon for individuals to equate psychedelic experiences to interacting with divinity, and if individuals were able to survive easier because of ideas they had while having that “divine experience” It would be very easy for religions to form based off the subjective “deity” they experienced that lead them to objective truths. This would be the birth of shamanism, and when language and culture has been established the common folk can benefit from psychedelics without having to take them leaving the “shamans” who do take them to be seen as links between divinity and reality. Eventually leading to the priests’ and religions we know of now. 

      Do I believe the tripping ape hypothesis? I do to an extent. There are likely many factors that went into our sentience. Our ability to interact with the universe for one is a huge factor. Very few species have appendages as dexterous as our hands and are limited in their ability to probe the universe and apply discovery. But though I don't believe it was the main factor I genuinely do believe psychedelics were a major factor in diverging from general consciousness to human sentience, and I believe they still have the capacity to push our minds further. 

      Many great minds in science and computer science were lead to their discovery and innovation through psychedelic experiences, And as research into AI progresses it may become more and more valuable to understand how distortions of reality can actually make it more clear, And where abstraction can lead to efficiency and precision. 

      Tell me what do you guys think? Do you see tripping ape as plausible? Do you think consciousness and sentience as I described are accurate assumptions? Do you think psychedelics have value in discovery? What is consciousness to you, and what is the human experience to you? Have you experienced a psychedelic or “spiritual” experience before? I’d love to hear all of your opinions. I’ll be doing more posts like this soon and will be discussing your responses to this in my next post.