“Was that rock always there, or was it disturbed by a predator?”
“Hmm. That rock I remember, rough sandstone, 25 sides, angled south-east. I’m unsure of its neighbour though with 25 sides, angled south-south-east.”
Comment on ancient hyperfixations
Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Ancient people had to remember/memorize a lot more things just to get through their days, before writing existed.
tetris11@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
It takes a village to survive. Some to remember the exact differences between safe, fun, and deadly mushrooms and others to turn predators into prey.
Tonava@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
And some stay up all night to watch the fire and be the guard when everyone else sleeps. And some see and remember the weather patterns and can tell when it’s a good weather and when the winter is going to come. And some look at the stars and the moon and can always remember and tell the directions where to go. And some know all the animal tracks and know all the animal sounds. And some smell and taste a lot better when things are funky, so nobody dies. And…
SlurpingPus@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Yeah, prehistoric life is sometimes depicted as simplistic, skipping the fact that hunter-gatherers knew the landscape and all plants, grasses and animals for kilometres around. Kim Stanley Robinson’s novel ‘Shaman’ does a decent job of depicting what life in those times might’ve been like.
Granted, I instead memorize my city’s streets and organization of my computer stuff.