Chaos, Communication & Consciousness
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Transcript Chaos, Communication & Consciousness
Chaos, Communication and Consciousness
Module PH19510
Lecturers:
Dr. Dave Langstaff
Department of Physics
room 202
email: dpl
Module structure:
Web Notes:
Dr. Tony Cook
Department of Physics
Room 316
email: atc
Lectures - 2 per week,
Monday
0900
Thursday 1210
Physics 320
Biology Main
http://users.aber.ac.uk/dpl
Aims of Module
Understand how human communication has
evolved into today's global networks and the
information superhighway.
Follow the development of ideas attempting to
unravel the complexities of the natural world,
from the deterministic universe to chaotic
systems.
Relate the brain, the mind and consciousness to
complex artificial entities and networks.
Assessment
80% - Semester Exam -1.5 hours
20% - Assignment – Poster
Highly Recommended
Electric Universe
David Bodanis
£7.99
ISBN
0-349-11766-7
Aventis prize for
popular science
How Electrons hold
the universe together
Human Communication
- from grunts, grins & gestures to the
information superhighway
A brief history of communication
Key technologies, discoveries & people
How communications technology has
affected society
What is communication?
Transfer, processing and storage of
information
Latin – communicare
to
impart, share or make common
to bestow gifts (munificence)
originally tangibles rather than abstract
Entered English language in C14th
Earliest Communication
Expression of Emotion through facial
expression
Universal throughout humanity for over
1,000,000 years
Not just humans…
Guess the emotion?
Charles Darwin, 1809-1882
b. Shrewsbury, 1809
d. Downe, Kent, 1882
>24 books
>150 papers
Beagle 1831-1836
Origin of Species,
1859
Descent of Man, 1871
Charles Darwin & facial expression
The Expression Of The Emotions In Man
And Animals, 1872
Cites facial expressions as evidence for
evolution
Expression of emotion innate not learned
Trace back to prehistoric ancestors
Trace further back to other primates
Facial Perception
New born babies look at faces
Large proportion of brain
Can recognise very subtle clues
Evolutionary pressure
Limits to facial expression
Limited range of expression
Only in line of sight
Only close up
Gestures
Use hands, fingers & arms
More visible
Greater range of expression
Mostly learned rather than innate
Not universal – cultural differences
Beware the international traveller !!
Gestures
OK – Most of world
Hitching a lift
Obscene in Greece,
Sardinia, Iran, middle
East
Gestures
OK – U.K., U.S.A.etc
Are you OK? Underwater
Money in Japan
Zero in France
Obscene in Brazil &
Germany
Gestures
•Horned
Hand
•Hook ‘em
Satanic
Symbol ?
Texas Longhorns?
Body language & gestures
Desmond Morris 1928
zoologist, ethologist
The Naked Ape:A
Zoologist's Study of the
Human Animal , 1967
Manwatching (1977)
reprinted as
Peoplewatching (2001)
First words –
Beginnings of spoken language
100,000 BC – Homo Sapiens develops
first oral language
Arched bones at base of skull
lower
larynx (voice box)
ability to produce complex speech
Likely that earlier hominds had mental
capacity for speech but not larynx
Language & birth of civilisation
Language allows communication of facts,
ideas & emotions between individuals.
Possible to pass on wisdom about:
good
& bad foodstuffs
hunting grounds
Aboriginal Dreamtime stories
Common roots of language
6000 languages spoken on earth
14 major groups
Bancel & de l’Etang studied 1000 current
languages from all major groups
‘papa’ (or similar) present in 700
similar results for ‘mama’
First recording of information
≈30,000 BC
Cave paintings
Chauvet, France
Preserve Information
Start to form historical
record
Jean-Marie Chauvet © DRAC
Review of Lecture #1
First Communications from pre-history to
early man
Expressions
(1,000,000 BC)
Gestures & Body Language
Early Spoken language (100,000 BC)
First cave paintings (30,000 BC)