
Homo erectus made world's oldest doodle 500,000 years ago - tokenadult
http://www.nature.com/news/homo-erectus-made-world-s-oldest-doodle-500-000-years-ago-1.16477
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avz
There is one observation I find missing in the discussion of prehistoric
abstract art. It is that with primitive tools and techniques the abstract kind
of art is easier. It is the non-abstract kind that is difficult.

Regardless of the causes for their preference towards the abstract kind of
art, I find it amazing that _Homo erectus_ 500,000 years ago had some art at
all.

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ap22213
There's a gradient between the abstract and the non-abstract. And, the artist
decides the position on the gradient based on their communication intent, the
subject (the perceived audience), and the object (the perceived thing), even
if they're just 'doodling'.

Art is a cost / benefit play, just like most activities. Sometimes, it just
makes sense to keep things simple - especially if there's not much to
communicate.

~~~
Nzen
Scott McCloud's _Understanding Comics_ presents a more robust paradigm than
abstract-not. He posits a triangle whereby visual communication selects a
space between three poles: representative , abstract , realistic. I encourage
you to look at his slideshow on the topic.

[http://www.scottmccloud.com/4-inventions/triangle/index.html](http://www.scottmccloud.com/4-inventions/triangle/index.html)

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artichokeheart
My inner 5 year old can't help but snigger at this headline.

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S_A_P
Dont feel badly for the downvotes. I seriously cant help myself either. And
those who down vote something that is so blatantly funny to my inner 12 year
old as "Homo Erectus" need to stop taking themselves so seriously. I really
gotta wonder why the people who came up with these names didnt put a little
thought into what they were saying. Homo Erectus?!?!? That is hilarious...

~~~
S_A_P
and further proof that you are never allowed to think things on HN are
funny...

~~~
coldpie
It's a bit like making a Uranus joke on an article about the planet. Yeah,
okay, teehee, but we've heard it all before and moved on. You're not adding
anything to the discussion, and the joke wore out long, long ago.

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mc_hammer
what if we werent evolving... what if we are from space, and we are devolving
slowly into apes, that we didnt share the common ancestor, we are just closer
to it, and less devolved, and right now there are only 20000 gorillas left,
who are really, more devolved humans...

actually why isnt this possible? ive been thinking about this for 2-3 days and
i am not sure what the flaw is.

unrelated but also... supposedly there are 8' tall supergiant human skeletons
at the smithsonian... hundreds of them.

~~~
ChrisGranger
And what if there are unicorns?

There's no evidence to suggest what you're saying, and mountains of evidence
against it. It might be fun to daydream about "What if?" questions, but the
flaw is that the hypothesis is discounted by what we already know to be true.
We've mapped the genomes of many primates and have a pretty good handle on how
the branches of our "family tree" play out.

As far as the hundreds of 8'-tall giant human skeletons at the Smithsonian,
I'm going to need a source.

