Rebooting Humankind

Here is a little bit of context about our evolutionary path.

The first primate appeared on earth about 120 million years ago and the predecessors of the great apes appeared here less than 18 million years ago. Then, about 6 million years ago, somewhere in Africa, a population of great apes isolated themselves as to their reproduction habits. This new group evolved and from it arose several species of bipedal apes called Australopithecus. All of these new species ended up extinct, except one, which survived until about 2 million years ago, when it had already changed so much that it received a new species designation: Homo. Homo traveled around the world, but initially none of its populations survived outside Africa.

Then, about 200,000 years ago, a population of Homo began a new and different evolutionary trajectory, leaving descendants now known as Homo Sapiens.

It is well known that the individuals of this new species, Homo Sapiens, had new physical characteristics, including larger brains. However, all things considered, the 2 million years that separate humans from great apes (even if considered as 6 million years) are a very short evolutionary time to justify such a superior cognitive evolution on the part of the humans — remember that we share around 99% of our genetics with great apes (just like lions and tigers, horses and zebras, etc, you get the picture). And the puzzle increases if we consider that clear signs of the species’ unique cognitive abilities only emerged 500,000 years ago. What’s the answer to this enigma then?

Well, a significant part of the answer is related to this: the cognitive mechanism that is called Social or Cultural Transmission, which works at much faster timescales than biological evolution. Social or cultural transmission has assumed a unique form in humans. Our traditions and cultural artifacts accumulate modifications over time in a way that does not occur to other animal species — it is the so called cumulative cultural evolution. It is important to note that several animal species demonstrate creative potential and effectively create tools and practices, but no other has developed the kind of social learning that would enable the cultural ratchet to improve these processes over time.

What sets us apart is our ability to understand the intentionality of our co-specifics. Human beings are able to combine their cognitive resources in different ways from those of other animal species. We are able to understand the co-specifics as equal beings to ourselves, with mental and intentional lives equal to ours. This understanding allows individuals to imagine themselves in the mind of another person, so that not only we learn from the other, but through the other.

And so, from a relatively simple cognitive step, a higher level of empathy (understanding each other’s intentionality), which was collectively developed, we evolved into what we currently are as a species, distancing us so much from other animal species in general, and from the great apes in particular. We not only survived, we thrived. But had we not developed this new cognitive mechanism, we would likely have gone extinct, like all the other Australopithecus.

And right now, we are at a point of our evolution where we, collectively, need to take another cognitive leap, if we are to thrive once again. The pace of change is accelerating. We now live in a constant state of emergent complexity and it has in fact become increasingly hard to manage our societal complexity. On top of that, Artificial Intelligence is a reality, and it might outsmart us in the near future. So, we need to work on our adaptability, our ability to evolve and adapt to these changes. And the way to do it is by becoming more intelligent. We must take control of our cognitive evolution, by increasing and further developing our metacognition: our ability to think about thinking, learn about learning — in short, our ability to manage our basic mechanisms of thought, our basic cognitive mechanisms, the very ones that set us apart from other animal species in a first place. It is not enough to simply “have” these cognitive abilities and subconsciously use them anymore. Now we need to take full, conscious control of them. And if we do this, if we collectively further develop our metacognition, our species will be ready to take another decisive cognitive leap. We will take humankind to the next level.

But how can we become more intelligent? How can we educate ourselves to increase our metacognition? And how can we do that collectively, on a species scale? To seek an answer to these questions, that is why I’ve founded Inova:Ingenuity in a first place. And that is why I’ve created the CIC Program©, which is designed to increase our metacognition by educating us on the five key cognitive abilities that differentiate us from the great apes, the basic mechanisms of thought that allowed us, Homo Sapiens, to survive and thrive. The CIC Program© is though a humble attempt to help us take a first step to control and evolve our own cognitive abilities. If you’re interested in learning more, and I think you should be, you can get the CIC Program© here, in English or in Portuguese .

Let’s take this important step together. And let me know if you have anything to add here. This is a vital issue, which we all should be concerned with. The CIC Program© is only a first step towards increasing our metacognition and intelligence, and it is absolutely not intended to be conclusive or comprehensive.

Happy Holidays and a wonderful 2018 to all!

Fernando Deoud

for Inova:Ingenuity