Origins of Creativity by Mark Turner (Bochner Lecture)

Introduction

Rick Wilson, the director of CNCN, introduces the Solomon Bachner lecture series on creativity. Mark Turner is the speaker for this lecture.

• The Bhakra lecture series occurs once a year and is part of Ciencias lecture series.

• This year's lectures are on the topic of creativity.

• Mark Turner will be speaking about the origins of creativity and why humans are so talented at innovation.

About Mark Turner

Rick Wilson provides an introduction to Mark Turner.

• Mark Turner received his PhD from UC Berkeley.

• He is an institute professor of cognitive science at Case Western Reserve University.

• He is the founding director of the cognitive science network and co-director of Read In Lab.

• Professor Turner has produced numerous papers and books, including "Cognitive Dimensions of Social Science" (2001) and "The Origins of Ideas: Blending, Creativity, and the Human Spark" (2014).

The Central Question

Professor Turner begins his talk by introducing a central question related to human performance during Upper Paleolithic times.

• 50 years ago or less during Upper Paleolithic times, there was a history of human performance that was truly breathtaking.

• The archaeological record shows evidence for this performance.

• There is a central question related to how humans were able to achieve such high levels of performance during this time period.

The Recent Emergence of Human Phenomena

This section discusses the recent emergence of human phenomena such as art, religion, mathematics, music, advanced tool use and advanced social cognition. These phenomena are only about 50,000 years old.

Anatomically Modern Humans

• Anatomically modern humans are around 150 thousand years old.

• The claims of phenomena discussed in this section are only about 50,000 years old.

Evolutionary Progression

• Our ancestors were just a big mammal not particularly promising.

• Life did not need us; life was doing just fine fifty thousand years ago.

• Other species are really great but human beings are off the charts compared to other species in certain kinds of things.

Cognitive Capacity and Blending

This section discusses cognitive capacity and blending. It explores how we may be going back as far as it matters when we plan is police have been on a climb in the development of the cognitive capacity to do blending.

Traits and Capacity

• There is a capacity that involves an awful lot of other sorts of sayings which I don't do with different sorts of things and view them as blending happening under certain kinds of conditions.

• Everything genetically implanted modern that produces any capacity a trait.

Small Change Produces Enormous Effect

• When we got up to the point double scope blending made possible a range of supporting capacities.

• A small change baby fast produces an enormous change.

Conclusion: Supporting Capacities

This section concludes the talk by discussing supporting capacities and how they support each other.

Supporting Capacities

• The range of supporting capacities includes art, music, social cognition, and school.

• These supporting capacities do that phylogenetically and automatically in the individual side that is developing.

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Introduction to Blending Theory

In this section, Professor Turner introduces the concept of blending theory and how it relates to human cognition.

Blending Networks

• Blending networks are a way for humans to understand complex concepts by breaking them down into smaller, more manageable parts.

• These networks can be used in a variety of contexts, from science to politics.

• There are principles and constraints that govern blending networks, but they can operate over any conceptual domain.

Gradual Change

• Professor Turner proposes that blending theory is the result of gradual change over time.

• Anthropologists like Terry Deakin model how small changes in causes can produce enormous changes in effects.

Examples of Blending Networks

In this section, Professor Turner provides examples of blending networks in everyday life.

Government Instability

• When people want to express government instability, they often use symbols such as decomposing ruins or falling apart structures.

• While these examples may seem pyrotechnic, most blends are not extraordinary at all.

Chicken Years

• A child's example of "chicken years" demonstrates how blending networks can be used to understand complex concepts in everyday life.

Blending and Cognitive Science

In this section, the speaker discusses blending and cognitive science. He explains how we can blend different concepts to create new ideas and structures.

Blending Concepts

• The speaker talks about the concept of blending.

• He explains how we can selectively project the end into one to create a blend.

• The speaker talks about how words like lucky, unlucky, good, bad, mistake, gap, etc., call up a blending that we need to fill in ourselves.

• He asks us to imagine a car without a dent or an accent in order to understand what it means when he says there is a dent or an accent in the car.

• The speaker explains that there are many single words that say there is a blending that we're here but it's up to us to fill it in.

Cognitive Science

• The speaker talks about how blending is a major cognitive scientific problem.

• He explains how we can think about something that conflicts with our current environment and connect them.

• The speaker explores why memory would be subordinated to the current situation and why we can follow things that are radically incompatible with the current situation.

• He talks about Glyn bird's article on memory and delusion.

• The speaker gives an example of how he and his brother-in-law are connected non-us identity-wise but have roles they both employ.

Riddle of the Buddhist Monk

In this section, the speaker presents a riddle of the Buddhist monk and explains how it is a major cognitive scientific problem.

Riddle of the Buddhist Monk

• The speaker presents the riddle of the Buddhist monk climbing up a mountain path that leads to the summit, meditating at the top overnight, and walking back down.

• He asks if there is a place on the path which the monk occupies at the same hour of the day on two separate journeys.

• The speaker talks about how this riddle is very hard for people to wrap their minds around and how they need to avoid making assumptions.

Blending and Mathematics

In this section, the speaker talks about blending and mathematics. He explains how blending can help solve problems by representing them in a different way. He gives examples of blending in mathematics and provides references to papers that prove the concept.

Blending in Mathematics

• Blending can help solve problems by representing them differently.

• Superimposing two images can create interesting effects.

• The places where the "self" meets itself is grammatical and represents a blend.

• There are blends where there is only one path and no "me".

• James Alexander's paper on Mad Max shows three mathematical proofs of blending patterns.

Mirror Network America

• Mirror Network America network has different influences with the same conceptual frame.

• The New York Times used blending to explain Roger Bannister's race.

Blending and the Great Conversation

In this section, the speaker discusses blending as a way of combining different ideas to create new ones. He also talks about the "Great Conversation" across different fields of study and how it relates to blending.

Blending Ideas

• Blending is a way of combining different ideas to create new ones.

• This kind of blending can be straightforward or complex, but it is often invisible to consciousness.

• Blending can be structured by a debate frame, where two opposing ideas are brought together and debated.

• In the blend, certain relationships between ideas become incompatible with each other.

The Great Conversation

• The "Great Conversation" refers to the exchange of ideas across different fields of study throughout history.

• This conversation is like a blend, where different thinkers from different times and places are brought together in conversation.

• In this conversation, thinkers may disagree with each other or counter each other's arguments.

Self-Domestication in Animals

In this section, the speaker discusses self-domestication in animals and how it relates to human evolution.

Self-Domestication

• Self-domestication occurs when animals become less aggressive and more cooperative due to protection from selection pressures.

• Anthropologist Terry Egan proposes that humans may have undergone self-domestication as well.

• Egan suggests that self-domestication could explain why humans have such varied cultures compared to other animals.

The Evolution of Social Cognition

In this section, the speaker discusses how human beings evolved to have advanced social cognition and how it was adaptive for survival.

Evolution of Social Cognition

• Human beings evolved to have advanced social cognition which allowed them to move into colder climates and survive.

• The idea is that there was a time when humans were protected from the consequences of bad ideas because they were in good conditions. This allowed for the development of social cognition without being squashed by selection pressures.

• The archaeological record shows that tool sets used in our ancestral line remained unchanged for 800,000 years. This raises questions about how this could have happened.

• One argument is that cultural ratcheting effects occurred where someone comes up with something and the rest of the culture supports it. Another argument is that population density played a role in preserving products.

Imitation and Blending

In this section, the speaker discusses how imitation and blending are dependent upon advanced social cognition.

Imitation and Blending

• Imitation is dependent upon various kinds of conceptual blending.

• Humans are spectacularly good at having a full concept of another life. This allows us to interact with others in ways that other species cannot.

• As humans, we learn more about interacting with others through chimpanzees and DG's. However, nothing compares to human interaction as we can contribute goals, disappointment, and work for others.

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Computational Models of Women

In this section, the speakers discuss computational models of women and their applications in music and math.

Applications of Computational Models

• Computational models have been used to study women's behavior in different environments, especially music and math.

• Machine learning, symbolic programming, and linear algebra are used to manipulate data in these computational systems.

The Lake Toba Event

In this section, the speakers discuss the Lake Toba event that occurred 66 thousand years ago and its impact on human evolution.

Impact on Human Evolution

• The Lake Toba event wiped out many dominant species in East Africa.

• Humans had to band together to survive after the event.

• Mitochondrial DNA shows that humanity went down to less than 2,000 individuals at that time.

• The brain changed during this period as humans adapted to new challenges.

Banding Together for Survival

In this section, the speakers discuss how humans banded together for survival during a critical period in their evolution.

Critical Period for Human Evolution

• Humans had to band together or they would die out after the Lake Toba event.

• They went from an arboreal situation where everyone could pick their own fruit to being forced to work together in order to survive.

• This critical period is proposed as a reason why humans developed intelligence.

Lucy Researchers

In this section, the speakers discuss Lucy researchers and their importance in understanding human evolution.

Importance of Lucy Researchers

• Lucy researchers are important because they provide insight into human evolution through studying a single individual.

• Researchers use indirect evidence to reconstruct the past and develop plausible explanations for human evolution.

Mitochondrial DNA

In this section, the speakers discuss mitochondrial DNA and its importance in studying human evolution.

Importance of Mitochondrial DNA

• Mitochondrial DNA carries female information and can be used to study human evolution.

• Researchers use mitochondrial DNA to reconstruct the past and understand how humans evolved over time.

Pseudoscience in Human Evolution

In this section, the speakers discuss pseudoscience in human evolution and the importance of using multiple methods to understand the past.

Using Multiple Methods

• Using one method is not enough when studying human evolution.

• Indirect evidence from multiple sources can provide a more complete picture of how humans evolved over time.

• Anthropologists use different methods to study human evolution, including paleoanthropology.