"In short, if the new hypothesis is accurate, it shows that our Paleolithic ancestors “were almost certainly as cognitively advanced as we are” and “that they are fully modern humans,” Bacon told Motherboard."

Since when were people of the past not as "smart" as we are?

doubt if they see much use in current science.

I also subscribe to the fact that currently there is no intelligent life anywhere in the universe including here.

-Airplane

i think the surest sign that there's intelligent life out there is that it hasn't bothered to contact us yet.

In Paleolithic hominids was not fully expressed. Both Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis became extinct by the end of the Paleolithic. So they were still around adding to the gene pool and brain development during that time. And because of this it is thought hominids we're not as smart back then.

But tool development during this time suggests some pretty smart hominids.

To modern humans it seems reasonable to assume evolution added more intelligence to the species, not less. But more intelligence may not always be an evolutionary advantage to a species. Just look at some of those Trump voters.

"In 'Sex On The Wrong Brain', Ard Falten wraps zany science fiction around the theory that humanity is doomed because we're sending impatient satisfaction-demanding sex energy to the mathematical, logical parts of the brain, where it creates greed, fear, and authoritarianism."

https://www.amazon.com/Sex-Wrong-Brain-Ard-Falten/dp/1387445154

So were Paleolithic hominids smarter or dumber than your average Trump voter today?

Spanley (name of a movie, the character in).

fear of uncertainty/the need for certainty put big limits on imagination and creativity

fantastic book! the most subversive book ever written...

I love science fiction.

Wouldn't they have lived today?

I kid, totally...

... Wouldn't make it in their world.

We are all born with little beyond instinct. Over time, we, like all of humanity, build on what we learn.
We are the microcosm of all human development.
Everyone of us goes through, what humanity as a whole, lives.
Very important analysis of ourselves.

that the first question was not asked by a homo sapiens. The people in the caves were a continuation of the question and answering from the thousands of generations that developed from that learning.
Visualize a crow teaching its offspring to use bait to lure prey saying in their inimitable way, did you see how it works?
These cave discussions were passed around as shared knowledge looking for better answers to the questions of the day.
The language was limited, but the brain function used what it knew and created, through discussion, a means to teach better than just the show.

Monkeys – Not Humans – Made Ancient Sets of Stone Tools in Brazil, Study Finds : ScienceAlert
https://www.sciencealert.com/monkeys-not-humans-made-ancient-sets-of-stone-tools-in-brazil-study-finds

the African continent that indicates shared knowledge during prehistory.
There is a group called The Non Human Research Project or pretty close to that, that analyzes those creatures who exhibit human qualities, for protective status.
I have been studying the concept of vengeance and its origins in humanity. I've been searching in the primate community and have yet to find it. There are cases of violent response among chimps, for example, but they seek reconciliation after those events. Vengeance requires intent and so far I think it is a human trait of social evolution.
Many do not like to understand how we are part of a continuous development of all life on the planet and the maltreatment of animals is in essence, bad for all of us.

George Santos

That's what passes for talent in the GOP these days.

And unable to explain their insights and thoughts. For example, Archimedes was so close to developing calculus but had to explain everything with geometry. If he could have met the Mayans who had invented zero and a place value numerical system, how far could he have gone? Or musical prodigies before the development of instruments capable of expressing their vision?

Same with the people who find 27 different stellar alignments in a single archaeological site. It devolves into conspiracy-theory-like thinking, and you end up with pyramid power and antistratfordianism.

Bacon told Motherboard that putting all of this together has been “exhausting” and that the team will hold off on celebrating until they have published all of their findings. The researchers also anticipate arguments among experts around the exact definition of “writing” and whether their hypothetical calendar would neatly fall into that category.

“We do not want to press the controversial (and in many senses, semantic) question of whether writing was a Paleolithic invention; perhaps it is best described as a proto-writing system, an intermediary step between a simpler notation/convention and full-blown writing,” the researchers said in the study.”

“Assuming we have convinced colleagues of our correct identification, there will no doubt be a lively debate about precisely what this system should be called, and we are certainly open to suggestions,” they continued. “For now, we restrict our terminology to proto-writing in the form of a phrenological/meteorological calendar. It implies that a form of writing existed tens of thousands of years before the earliest Sumerian writing system.”

That a lot of these align with solstices is beyond doubt. But some enthusiasts keep trying to tell us that the same sites also align in multiple other ways. At some point they're just looking for whatever correspondences they can find, and then assuming they must be significant.

samples that are available. People have been claiming for centuries to have found codes in the Bible, Shakespeare's works, and the like. The problem is that it is easy to come up with theories about meaning, but almost impossible to prove unless you make a very, very good case.

And ponder its religious significance to 21st century man

Lunar cycles had more meaning to early man than the daily coming and goings of the sun - the moon had phases to mark .

are the black Bakelite telephone bodies, that stuff doesn't biodegrade and it's hard to break, unlike the flimsy laptop cases and screens.

They'll also find gold teeth from the same period and marvel at the painful lengths people went to for cosmetic beauty, they must have been the priesthood.

Other things that will survive are the ceramic supports for high tension wires and maybe a rare Le Creuset frypan, that stuff is really hard to kill. Glass floats for Japanese fishing nets will wash up for centuries, undoubtedly offerings to the sea gods.

Archaeologists have been puzzled by these: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/514246/are-roman-dodecahedrons-worlds-most-mysterious-artifact They've been fund by the thousands at Roman military encampments. I'm one of the knitters who looked at them and saw jigs for knitting fingers to leather gloves. It wouldn't have been fine work, the wool would have been heavy or they'd have worn through in a day, but I can see Roman soldiers using these things during their down time, repairing gloves and making spares for the times they were busy with cold hands, fighting barbarians.

since all you could roll with one of these things is a 5.

Of course the ancients knew Morse Code. How else could they communicate without paper and telephones?