Chapter 23 — Insect, Early Human, and Modern Human

All learning begins with Signals.

Light, sound, smell, touch, temperature, and movement provide information from the environment.

However, learning does not always remain at the same distance from those original Signals.

In this simplified STLR comparison, insect learning remains relatively close to direct Signals. Early humans could learn above the Signal level through basic abstraction. Modern humans can learn many levels above Signals through sophisticated language.

Insect Learning Stays Close to Signals

An insect receives Signals from its environment.

A smell may indicate food. Light may guide movement. Temperature may affect where the insect goes. Contact with a harmful substance may cause avoidance.

Some responses may be largely inherited. Other responses may change through experience.

In either case, the connection remains relatively close to the original Signals:

Signal → response

or:

Repeated Signal → learned response

For example, a particular smell may become associated with food. When the smell appears again, the insect approaches it.

The insect does not need a word for the smell. It does not need an explanation of food. It responds to the Signals and the associations formed from experience.

This does not mean that insects have no ability to learn. It means that, in this simplified STLR comparison, their learning remains relatively close to direct sensory Signals and responses.

Early Humans Learned Above the Signal Level

Early humans also received light, sound, smell, touch, and other Signals.

However, they could form Tags that represented something beyond the Signals currently in front of them.

A drawing of an animal is made from visible lines and shapes. Those lines are Signals reaching the eyes.

But the drawing can represent a real animal that is not present.

The person is no longer responding only to the lines. The lines have become connected with Tags for the animal.

A cross drawn over the animal may add another meaning. It may represent killing the animal or an intention to kill it.

The drawing now communicates more than the existence of an animal. The combination of the animal drawing and the cross can represent an action involving that animal.

This creates another level of abstraction:

Visible lines → animal drawing → absent animal

Animal drawing + cross → killing the animal

A gesture could represent an action. A particular sound could represent danger. Marks on a surface could identify a location.

The original information still enters through Signals, but the resulting Tags can represent objects and actions that are not directly being sensed.

Early humans could therefore communicate and learn above the immediate Signal level, even before the development of sophisticated modern language.

Modern Language Creates Higher Abstraction

Modern humans still begin with Signals.

Spoken words enter as sound Signals. Written words enter as visual Signals.

However, once their meanings have been learned, words can Reference Tags far beyond the sounds or marks themselves.

The written word house is only a group of visible marks.

Those marks can Reference Tags for the appearance of a house, rooms and furniture, living inside it, ownership, safety, family, remembered houses, and imaginary houses.

Language can then combine words to represent more complicated content:

The house may be sold next year.

This sentence can represent an object that is not present, a possible future event, ownership, time, and uncertainty.

None of these ideas must be directly visible in front of the reader.

The person has moved many levels above the original visual or sound Signals.

Words Can Explain Other Words

Sophisticated language allows one abstract idea to explain another abstract idea.

A person can learn about justice, infinity, gravity, government, algebra, probability, events that happened thousands of years ago, and events that may happen in the future.

Many of these things cannot be learned from one direct Signal.

They require words, definitions, examples, comparisons, and explanations.

The learner receives spoken or written Signals. Those Signals activate word Tags. The word Tags Reference other Tags and knowledge islands. New Tags and Hard-Links can then form from the explanation.

In this way, language allows learning to move repeatedly above the original Signal level.

Learning Can Be Passed to Another Person

An insect may learn something through its own direct interaction with the environment.

Humans can also learn from direct experience, but sophisticated language allows them to receive knowledge formed through someone else’s experience.

A person does not need to personally discover every mathematical rule. The rule can be explained.

A person does not need to visit ancient Rome to learn something about it. Words, drawings, maps, and preserved records can Reference Tags and help form a knowledge island.

Language allows knowledge to pass from one mind to another without repeating the original experience.

The receiver still needs Signals. The person must hear the explanation, read the words, or see the diagram.

But the knowledge formed from those Signals can represent something far beyond them.

Different Levels Above Signals

The main comparison can be summarized this way:

Insect

Learning remains relatively close to direct Signals and responses.

Early human

Drawings, gestures, objects, and sounds can represent something beyond the immediate Signals.

Modern human

Sophisticated language can describe relationships among abstract ideas and build knowledge many levels above the original Signals.

These are not exact biological boundaries. They are a simplified comparison used by the STLR proposal to explain different levels of learning and abstraction.

All three begin with Signals.

The difference is how far the resulting Tags, Hard-Links, and References can carry learning beyond those Signals.

Sophisticated language greatly increases that distance. It allows modern humans to form, connect, preserve, and communicate highly abstract knowledge that may have little visible connection to the original Signals through which it was learned.