[HN Gopher] Independent researcher claims to find writing in pre... ___________________________________________________________________ Independent researcher claims to find writing in prehistoric cave paintings Author : JoshTriplett Score : 18 points Date : 2023-01-06 12:12 UTC (10 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.vice.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.vice.com) | bell-cot wrote: | A kinda interesting - but _massively_ over-hyped - "discovery" | about a long-known feature of prehistoric European cave | paintings. | jjtheblunt wrote: | because Vice essentially sells eyeball-attention? | dang wrote: | We've replaced the title with something less linkbaity, in | keeping with the HN guidelines (" _Please use the original | title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don 't | editorialize._" - | https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html). | | Maybe there's some interesting stuff to discuss here? Hopefully | we can focus on the content now. | ghostly_s wrote: | I fail to see how counting months rather than kills makes this | writing and not simply counting. | ggm wrote: | A sequence is not the same as a sum. Counting is not the same | as denoting a sequence in a set. | | A sequence implies communicating at least two and probably more | concepts. Counting at best communicates two things, the amount | and the aggregate type. A sequence communicates an order and | the ordinal instances present and the type classifier and | arguably the terminals of the sequence (both its length and | denoted start and end or re-start) and for a cyclical sequence | the fact it is a cycle. | | Counting is not the same as marking "which" | | These are quite complex abstractions. They go to order in time | and "best" months to hunt in. | | It's language. | pelasaco wrote: | "In short, if the new hypothesis is accurate, it shows that our | Paleolithic ancestors "were almost certainly as cognitively | advanced as we are" and "that they are fully modern humans," | Bacon told Motherboard. It also means "that their society | achieved great art, use of numbers, and writing" and "that | reading more of their writing system may allow us to gain an | insight into their beliefs and cultural values," he concluded." | | It remembers me the first chapter from "The Everlasting Man", | Chesterton: | https://www.worldinvisible.com/library/chesterton/everlastin... | | "In fact, people have been interested in everything about the | cave-man except what he did in the cave. Now there does happen to | be some real evidence of what be did in the cave. It is little | enough, like all the prehistoric evidence, but it is concerned | with the real cave-man and his cave and not the literary cave-man | and his club." | | I remember first time that I read it, I thought "and if the cave | was just their kindergarden, where the cave-kids just spent their | time drawing in the cave-wall" ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2023-01-06 23:00 UTC)