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Vision is interesting in that it leverages the maximum speed with which it is easily possible to gather information about our surroundings in this universe. I b
by dinfinity 1y ago
Vision is interesting in that it leverages the maximum speed with which it is easily possible to gather information about our surroundings in this universe. I believe that is what makes it special and very valuable. I also believe this aspect makes it a strong attractor for convergent evolution.
Language allows encoding and compression of information about the world, which is of course incredibly powerful and increases communication bandwidth enormously (as well as tons of other stuff).
I'd say that for high level cognitive processes, hearing and speaking were an important stepping stone because for some reason evolving organs that can generate relatively high bandwidth signals in audio seems to be easier than evolving something that does that for visuals (very few Teletubby screens on tummies in the natural world).
Interesting games to think about in this sense: Pictionary/drawing games and charades.
- actionfromafar 1y agoRegarding visual communication, I think you downsell posturing, gesturing and facial expressions a little. They may not be as high bandwidth as talking but they are very low latency and pretty stealthy if necessary.
- dinfinity 1y agoWell, there is sign language, so I guess you're right. It would be interesting to see how high bandwidth gesturing can be compared to speaking. I thought about this some more and I think the prevalence of making sounds rather than gesturing etc. is due to sound being a broadcasting mechanism that works over long distances and without line of sight. Visually indicating that you've claimed some territory is pretty hard.
- actionfromafar 1y agoI was thinking more about "low level" communication which can be gleaned from body language, frowns, smiles, gaze, winks, pointing etc. Perhaps not very information dense, but very fast.