The Symbolic Species
by Terrence W. Deacon · first published 1998
9mentions
8recommended by
8HN commenters
2007–2025first – last mentioned
100% recommend
Why HN recommends it
Argues that language and the human brain co-evolved, and is cited as a current-state-of-the-art overview of theories on language origins; suggested to readers interested in the evolution of cognition and language.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…read the EvPsych literature to get the scientific argument. I don't know enough about it to cite the papers, etc. Another book that looks at factors involved in the evolution of the human brain is The Symbolic Species by Terrence Deacon, http://www.amazon.com/Symbolic-Species-Co-Evolution-Language... "The answer is memes. And the short reason why is: memes evolve much, much faster than genes, so once they existed,…
on “Existential Depression in Gifted Individuals” ↗Language isn't an invention, it's co-evolved with Homo Sapiens. I highly recommend The Symbolic Species for the current state of the art in language origin theories. http://www.amazon.com/The-Symbolic-Species-Co-Evolution-Lang...
on “The Power of Language” ↗You might find an answer in The Symbolic Species by Terrence Deacon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_Species
on “Ask HN; Do animals laugh?” ↗My favorite theory of the origin of language: http://www.amazon.com/The-Symbolic-Species-Co-evolution-Lang.... It unfolds a bit like a murder mystery, so I won't spoil the ending for you. If the middle section seems a bit of a slog -- persevere!
on “There is no language instinct (2014)” ↗The Symbolic Species by Terrence Deacon--specifically its containment heirarchy framed logic. Made much more explicit in his second text, Incomplete Nature.
on “Ask HN: Books that rearranged your brain cells in a positive way?” ↗"The Symbolic Species" by Terrence W. Deacon might interest you.
on “Ask HN: How does the brain prioritize learning, retention and skill-building?” ↗I remember part of this book called "The Symbolic Species: The Co-evolution of Language and the Brain", and the author got so angry when layman compared birdsong to speech. It was a very interesting book though.
on “In birdsong, scientists find some parallels with human speech” ↗The technology of language is designed to fool the receiver. That's its primary goal. Read any substantial text on language post western functional linguistics like Deacon's The Symbolic Species. In his view "language is a virus or a parasite" Once language became a strategy of cybernetic and then cog-sci regimes (which is what all computer science is modeled from), the basic principle of control-deception…
on “Why the open social web matters now” ↗Anyone assuming social media is progress rather than regressive should be reading Deacon’s The Symbolic Species esp the first chapter. Any use of language as communication or conflates them simply ensures social media is maladaptive. Words do not communicate, people do, with breath eyes voice pauses blinks. These…
on “There's no such thing as neutral technology” ↗