Chaos, Communication and Consciousness Module PH19510 Module structure :Lectures - 2 per week, Monday 09 00 Physics 320 Thursday 12 10 Biology Main Web.

Chaos, Communication and ConsciousnessModule PH19510

Module structure: Lectures - 2 per week, Monday 0900 Physics 320 Thursday 1210 Biology Main

Web Notes: http://users.aber.ac.uk/dpl

Lecturers:

Dr. Dave Langstaff Dr. Tony CookDepartment of Physics Department of Physics

room 202 Room 316email: dpl email: atc

Aims of Module

Understand how human communication has evolved into today's global networks and the information superhighway.

Follow the development of ideas attempting to unravel the complexities of the natural world, from the deterministic universe to chaotic systems.

Relate the brain, the mind and consciousness to complex artificial entities and networks.

Assessment

80% - Semester Exam -1.5 hours 20% - Assignment – Poster

Highly RecommendedElectric Universe David Bodanis £7.99 ISBN

0-349-11766-7

Aventis prize for popular science

How Electrons hold the universe together

Human Communication- from grunts, grins & gestures to the information superhighway

A brief history of communication Key technologies, discoveries & people How communications technology has

affected society

What is communication?

Transfer, processing and storage of information

Latin – communicare to impart, share or make common to bestow gifts (munificence)originally tangibles rather than abstract

Entered English language in C14th

Earliest Communication

Expression of Emotion through facial expression

Universal throughout humanity for over 1,000,000 years

Not just humans…

Guess the emotion?

Charles Darwin, 1809-1882

b. Shrewsbury, 1809 d. Downe, Kent, 1882 >24 books >150 papers Beagle 1831-1836 Origin of Species,

1859 Descent of Man, 1871

Charles Darwin & facial expression

The Expression Of The Emotions In Man And Animals, 1872

Cites facial expressions as evidence for evolution

Expression of emotion innate not learned Trace back to prehistoric ancestors Trace further back to other primates

Facial Perception

New born babies look at faces Large proportion of brain Can recognise very subtle clues Evolutionary pressure

Limits to facial expression

Limited range of expression Only in line of sight Only close up

Gestures

Use hands, fingers & arms More visible Greater range of expression Mostly learned rather than innate Not universal – cultural differences Beware the international traveller !!

Gestures

OK – Most of world Hitching a lift Obscene in Greece,

Sardinia, Iran, middle East

Gestures

OK – U.K., U.S.A.etc Are you OK? -

Underwater Money in Japan Zero in France Obscene in Brazil &

Germany

Gestures•Hook ‘emTexas Longhorns?

•Horned HandSatanic Symbol ?

Body language & gesturesDesmond Morris 1928- zoologist, ethologist The Naked Ape:A

Zoologist's Study of the Human Animal , 1967

Manwatching (1977) reprinted as Peoplewatching (2001)

First words –Beginnings of spoken language 100,000 BC – Homo Sapiens develops

first oral language Arched bones at base of skull

lower larynx (voice box)ability to produce complex speech

Likely that earlier hominds had mental capacity for speech but not larynx

Language & birth of civilisation

Language allows communication of facts, ideas & emotions between individuals.

Possible to pass on wisdom about:good & bad foodstuffshunting grounds

Aboriginal Dreamtime stories

Common roots of language

6000 languages spoken on earth 14 major groups Bancel & de l’Etang studied 1000 current

languages from all major groups ‘papa’ (or similar) present in 700 similar results for ‘mama’

First recording of information

≈30,000 BC Cave paintings Chauvet, France Preserve Information Start to form historical

record

Jean-Marie Chauvet © DRAC

Review of Lecture #1

First Communications from pre-history to early manExpressions (1,000,000 BC)Gestures & Body LanguageEarly Spoken language (100,000 BC)First cave paintings (30,000 BC)