When did humans begin to accumulate social knowledge?

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A key appearance of humans' evolutionary success East THE do that We don't do it to have has learn how has TO DO things Since scratch. OUR companies to have developed miscellaneous ways - of official education has Youtube videos - for to transmit What others to have learned. This makes learning how has TO DO things far Easier that learning by TO DO, And he given We more space has experience; We can learn has build new things Or handle Tasks more effectively, SO pass information on how has TO DO SO on has others.

A few of OUR closer parents, as chimpanzees And bonobos, learn Since their companion members of the species. They don't do it seem has to commit In This iterative process of improvement - they don't do it, In technical terms, to have A cumulative culture Or new technologies are built on pass awareness. SO, When did humans develop This capacity?

Base on A new analysis of rock tool making, two researchers are argue that THE ability East relatively recent, dating has just 600,000 years There is. It is roughly THE even time OUR ancestors And THE Neanderthals went their separated ways.

It is pretty obvious that A plot of OUR technology built on pass efforts. If You are while reading This on A mobile platform, SO You are benefit Since THE do that smart phones were derivative Since staff computers And that software required functioning material has arrive. But For millions of years, human technology missing THE sort of clear building blocks that would be help We identify When A archaeological artifact East derivative Since earlier work. SO, how TO DO You go about to study THE origin of cumulative cultural?

Jonathan Paige And Charles Perrault, THE researchers behind THE new study, took A pretty direct approach. HAS to start with, they concentrate on rock tools Since these are THE only things that are well preserved through OUR species' history. In a lot case, THE fashions of tools stayed constant For hundreds of thousands of years. This given We enough examples that We have has been able has figure out how these tools were made, In a lot case learning has TO DO them ourselves.

Their argument In THE paper they have just published East that THE sophistication of these tools provides A measure of When cultural accumulation begin. "As new prune techniques are discovered, THE borders of THE possible design space develop," they argue. "These more complex technologies are Also more difficult has discover, master, And teach."

THE question SO becomes A of When humans do THE key change: Since simply education THE following generation has TO DO THE even sort of tools has using that awareness as A foundation has build something new. Paige And Perreault argue that It is A matter of how complex he East has TO DO THE tool: "Generations of improvements, modifications, And lucky Errors can generate technologies And know how GOOD beyond What A Single naive individual could invent independently In their for life."

Their reasoning leaves THE issue of how has measure that complexity And how has determine When he crosses A threshold that A "Single, naive individual" I could not develop on their clean.

Paige And Perreault to focus on What they term A "procedural unit," which they define as "discreet, mutually exclusive manufacturing not that can be chained together." SO, THE more of procedure units he takes has TO DO A tool, THE more complex THE manufacturing process East. THE the earlier rock tools only involve three of THE 33 total of procedure units THE researchers identified. THE most sophisticated, Since In THE pass 10,000 years, required 19.

SO, Or East THE cut that requires cumulative culture? THE researchers to use A number of examples: THE tool making do by OUR primate parents, ask non qualified humans has TO DO A rock tool, And random flaking of rocks. HAS most of them, these used six of procedure units, SO that was considered THE cut: anything beyond six means that cumulative culture was necessary.

Look has real tools, they find three distinct periods. THE First of all short Since THE to start of tool manufacturing about 3.3 million years There is has roughly 1.8 million years There is. It is characterized by easy to do tools that require four of procedure units Or less. From 1.8 million YOU...