Greatest single circumstance that changed human life?

Penelope · Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 2:58 pm Post subject:

Oh dear...as happens often with me....I have just seen something on TV which has shown me how wrong I am.

I was going to delete my above posts....but you have answered me..and so it will destroy the thread if I do any deleting.

Suffice it to say....your list is correct. I WAS WRONG. Humour comes a little way down on the list....although as you have so wisely said...it is essential.....an essential element....but that is all. Embarassed

Ophelia · Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 3:16 pm Post subject:

Well, you've made me think. Apparently a lot has been written about whether animals laugh (rats can laugh apparently!) , but now I have those pictures of humans and evolution and wondering when they first showed a sense of humour.
It can't be irrelevant.

Now I'm feeling a bit impish- we have to imagine that language, printing, were discovered in different parts of the world (and some of the young upstarts probably invented computers, so we won't even mention that) but where would the first human being with a sense of humour have appeared? Smile

Penelope · Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 6:32 pm Post subject:

I have been informed that Rats are one of the most intelligent of animals and that they make wonderful pets. Better than hamsters, gerbils etc..

I have been thinking about humour though. We don't all share the same sense of humour, do we?

I think we all like to see 'authority' get a custard-pie in its face. It is very funny if it hits the local policeman or the mayor, but not nearly so funny if it is the local vagrant.

And there are a lot of things which pass for humour now, which I feel are not funny at all....it seems to be the ability to shock, to make you laugh rather than a comic situation. I have seen some very cruel 'comedy' on our televisions recently.....but my children think it is funny.

I have thought that there is a great difference between generations, where humour is concerned.....I didn't laugh at what my parents thought hilarious. And I wonder what the first joke was!

LanDroid · Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2008 10:54 am Post subject:

BEER!!!
No beer, no civilization!
Is there anything beer cannot do?

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/07/the_essential_beer.h tml

Thomas Hood · Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2008 8:22 pm Post subject:

After language, I'd say the steam engine. One for information, the other for energy.

Tom

Jeremy · Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2008 7:23 am Post subject:

I have read that the original purpose for the domestication of wheat was for beer!

geo · Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 6:16 am Post subject:

Humor is important, but also seems a natural extension of language and intelligence Many animals can be said to have a sense of playfulness, like this wolf.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zmri42px8g

So, I would say the development of language ranks way, way, way up there. The neolithic revolution in which humans developed agriculture in many parts of the world simultaneously is way up there as well.

edit: added 'way, way'

Ophelia · Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 6:20 am Post subject:

Hello Geo, welcome to Booktalk. Smile

Would you like to tell us a little about yourself by writing an introduction in the "Introduction" threads?

Grim · Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 8:00 pm Post subject: Division of Stimuli and Memory

No other species can distinguish and remember the distinction.

Our memory places our past in our future, as we shape the world into what we what it to be.

Frank 013 · Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 2:52 am Post subject:

What is the greatest single circumstance that changed the course of human life?

I have the answer… Cheetos!

they go good with beer!

Later


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