Causal belief and the origins of technology.

Full Abstract

The primary function of the brain is to control movement. Human interactions with the environment, unlike those of other primates, are based on a belief in cause and effect, and this led to technology. Experiments requiring simple manipulations of the environment show that chimpanzees do not have concepts of causes or forces. Children, by contrast, have causal beliefs as a developmental primitive, and these can be demonstrated even in infants. It is proposed that the evolution of causal thinking was essential for the development of tool use, as it is not possible to make a complex tool without understanding cause and effect. This was a great evolutionary adaptive advantage. The evolution of language may have been linked to the same process. It has been technology that resulted from causal beliefs, not social interaction, that has driven human evolution.

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Author information

Author/s: Wolpert, Lewis (L);

Affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences (Philos Transact A Math Phys Eng Sci), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-Aug; vol 361 (issue 1809) : pp 1709-19

Dates: Created 2003/09/03; Completed 2003/10/30; Revised 2004/12/15;

PMID: 12952682, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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