Department of Communication, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2023 Mar 13;378(1872):20210404. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0404. Epub 2023 Jan 23.
This paper presents and defends the following theoretical arguments: (1) The uniqueness of the human condition lies in the fact that only humans engage in , where different individuals work together on shared computational challenges. Collaborative computation is the foundation of our cumulative cultures. (2) Collaborative computation requires individuals to engage in , where senders do not just send messages to receivers-but also send them instructions that the receivers are obliged to follow in the course of computing the messages. (3) The process of human evolution was driven throughout by the invention and development of tools of instructive communication. (4) In this process, two separate major transitions should be identified. The first was made possible by the toolkit of representational gestures (pointing, eye contact, manual demonstration, pantomime and more) that Merlin Donald called the toolkit of . Mimesis allows for collaborative computation as long as the information requiring computation is available for direct experiencing by the participants. The second was made possible by , the tool that allowed its users, for the first time, to engage in collaborative computations of information they did not experience together-through the systematic instruction of the mental computations of imagination. This article is part of the theme issue 'Human socio-cultural evolution in light of evolutionary transitions'.
（1）人类境况的独特性在于，只有人类从事协作计算，不同的个体共同解决共享的计算挑战。协作计算是我们累积文化的基础。（2）协作计算要求个体进行指令传递，发送者不仅发送消息给接收者，还发送接收者在计算消息过程中必须遵循的指令。（3）人类进化的过程始终受到指令性交流工具的发明和发展的推动。（4）在这个过程中，应该识别出两个单独的主要转变。第一个转变是由代表性手势工具包（指向、眼神交流、手动演示、模仿等）实现的，梅林·唐纳德称之为模仿工具包。只要需要计算的信息可供参与者直接体验，模仿就允许协作计算。第二个转变是由书面语言实现的，它首次允许其使用者通过系统地指导想象的心理计算，进行他们没有共同体验的信息的协作计算。本文是主题为“从进化转变看人类社会文化进化”的一部分。
