Language ruined everything, as it allowed us humans to update and maintain our social network (not the digital ones, the in-brain one) without seeing or (like a

Language ruined everything, as it allowed us humans to update and maintain our social network (not the digital ones, the in-brain one) without seeing or (like apes do) touching each others for days. Our groups/tribes jumped from 30 members maximum (chimpanzees) to 100-200 (Dunbar’s number, calculated from a meta-study). That’s nearly 7 times more close relationships, and no need to see more than one or two daily to keep track! From there, it’s all downhill, with writing allowing even bigger groups, distant communication, the printing press, telephone, allowing our small brains to manage huge social networks across the world and over the years. Really, language is the source of all these fake, distant relationships! Good articles to read, even more if you are building or studying internet social networks, communication tools, etc. "Gossip in Evolutionary Perspective" https://attach.matita.net/ziorufus/Dunbar%20gossip.pdf https://attach.matita.net/ziorufus/Dunbar%20gossip.pdf "co-evolution of neocortex size, group size and language in humans" https://pdodds.w3.uvm.edu/files/papers/others/1993/dunbar1993a.pdf https://pdodds.w3.uvm.edu/files/papers/others/1993/dunbar199... They are part of the material I use in my ´History of Tech Design´ class! ( https://workflowy.com/s/strate-history-of-te/a4ID6kKtznLwQC7C https://workflowy.com/s/strate-history-of-te/a4ID6kKtznLwQC7... )