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Comment by jl6 | Hacker News Reader

Sure, but that’s the Greek mythological version of the Garden of Eden story.

I find the reality even more interesting. What were humans thinking about 40,000 years ago, with their modern bodies and brains?

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Were they thinking?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Origin_of_Consciousness_in...

Ah Julian Jaynes, the Erich von Däniken of psychology.

Of which Richard Dawkins wrote: “It is one of those books that is either complete rubbish or a work of consummate genius, nothing in between! Probably the former, but I’m hedging my bets.”

Even with the abundance of plant and animal food, they were preoccupied with survival. There were too many things to be taken care of: avoiding falling prey to carnivores (including fellow humans), injuries, sickness; need to hunt and/or collect food, tend to children. There was just no time to think about much else. But the prehistoric form of communism made survival easier. In the later, more individualist, times, if you wanted to be able to spend time and your thoughts on something other than mere subsistence, you had to have servants.

I recall a rather flippant and sensationalist video with a YouTuber interviewing some present day hunter gatherers on more philosophical matters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAGjuRwx_Y8 "Asking Hunter-Gatherers Life's Toughest Questions"

I got the impression there was some language barrier stuff going on, but the answer to many questions was... "meat"

Please don't make people out to be weird, primitive aliens when it's completely untrue. If you had ever read any of the numerous ethnographies out there, you'd know that they gossip, tell stories, joke, and complain like any other people. Special emphasis on the complaining and joking, because those tend to be important social behaviors. 'resource-related' discussion happens mainly during work hours and then it's still not the majority of discussion in the numbers I've seen.

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