If self-awareness emerged recently, this should show up in comparative linguistics. The ability to introspect is a big deal, and it would require the invention of new words to communicate new experien…

After millennia of debate on the origins of consciousness, experts still put forth start dates spanning five orders of magnitude. This post will highlight some of those attempts, relate them to recurs…

This is part of a series on the evolution of recursion. The first post explained why so many psychologists, philosophers, and linguists believe recursive thinking is the ability that makes us human. T…

Humans are unique among animals for their capacity for symbolic thought and their reliance on complex, grammatical language. About 70,000 years ago, our species began producing art and then took over …

When God Was a Woman presents an ancient world radically different from our own: one where women were the first prophets, serpents granted wisdom rather than sin, and the foundations of civilization—w…

There’s a tradeoff between writing posts of general interest and those that develop ideas related to Eve and the Snake Cult. The post on cultural diffusion was more of the former and was even tweeted …

A provocative new paper claims our ancestors’ long walk out of Africa pruned not just their genes but their imaginations. The data, however, tell a different story.

You may have noticed that men and women think differently. Don’t worry, it’s not a sin. In fact, female preference for people vs things is a well-studied phenomenon in psychology. If the self was disc…

A comprehensive interdisciplinary theory proposing that human consciousness originated as a cultural invention in prehistoric times, likely pioneered by women and spread through ritual and language.

Comprehensive deep dive into the global incidence, prevalence, disparities, and trends of schizophrenia.