The Technicity Thesis
Human beings are the only species to develop technology.
Language had evolved before the speciation of modern humans.
In child development the capacity to draw develops after language has fully developed.
Drawings are constructed from abstract geometrical forms and block-
Human constructions are unnaturally simple in form.
The identified source for information on abstract line, colour, etc. is phyletic (elemental) information immanent (inherent) in primary visual cortex.
Prefrontal cortex has the capacity to create new possibilities from memories.
Hypothetically, the globularisation of the brain with the advent of anatomically modern humans brought about the accidental connection of prefrontal neurones to primary sensory cortex.
This would have provided prefrontal cortex with memory information of a different quality from sensory input, thence the technicity adaptation.
This adaptation is a major transition in life and separates modern humans from all precursor species.
The unnatural constructions created from this elemental information can only be maintained by a system of education.
A corollary of the later evolution of technicity relative to language is a disconnection between the two. Technicity and language meet up only in prefrontal cortex.
Primary education, when prefrontal cortex is making its greatest connectional growth is the phase wherein technicity and language are brought into greater congruence.
Three modes of learning are available to modern humans:
Mode 1: pre-
Mode 2:
lithic learning, “written on a slate animated in a mind”, uses meaningful marks as
external memory, the “Stone Age” basis of schooling since before writing was developed;
Mode 3: Turing teaching, which uses the computer constructionally, and is new.
Each mode is a transition. Consequently the characteristics and benefits of a higher mode are not researchable from within a lower one.
There is evidence to suggest that traditional teaching methods lack conceptual clarity. In literacy and numeracy they confuse children and are unfit for purpose.
Transition to Turing teaching is the next leap in the development of education. Begun now, a minimum of a quarter century will be required for transition.
To sum up in a short phrase:
Technicity enables the human to imagine the naturally impossible.
Last revision 23.02.2011
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