Recap of user polls
Recap of user polls
What do Vectors of Mind readers think?
Polls are an under-used Substack tool, particularly when a post makes a specific argument. Less than 1% of people who read an article will comment, and those who do usually have strong opinions. Polls are the spoonfed option. In terms of feedback, they gather a more representative sample of views. So, let’s review the VoM polls to date, starting with the most recent. The end of the post includes some polls about EToC which I’d be much obliged if you answered. Thanks!
The case mostly rests on the diffusion of bullroarers and x-ray-style rock art. I’m particularly interested in why archeologists don’t bring up that body of research, which I view as irresponsible if the connection is higher than 10% odds. Of the people who voted, 63% view the connection as in that range. So it’s at least a vote of confidence for me to write the article. (Obviously, people who take diffusion seriously are drawn to the substack and are more likely to finish the article.)
Note: since writing this, I realized that Notroff, the archeologist at Gobekli Tepe whose work is discussed in this piece, has actually cited a classic text on bullroarer diffusion. So, ignoring that body of research when he debunks claims of diffusion is likely a conscious choice. (I edited a few lines in the post to clarify that.)
Less time and space separate these literate Bronze Age cultures from Gobekli Tepe than between Aboriginals and the same. Therefore, a connection is more likely, and the votes reflect that. One of the questions I have, in general, is to balance how much to preach to the choir. This is a fun article if you are already persuaded of the longevity of myths in general or EToC specifically. But it’s not a strong argument by itself. Notably, this draws on a completely different type of evidence: archeo-astronomy.
This article presents the reasons I’m persuaded that some 30+ kya myths have diffused the world over. It seems that, basically, everyone agrees, at least on the Seven Sisters. FWIW, I also haven’t seen any academic sources claim anything but a common root for the Seven Sisters, usually at ~100 kya, before the Out of Africa migration. The longevity of this myth is a truly baffling phenomenon.
Notice how much higher these numbers are than a connection between Gobekli Tepe and Australia or Herakles. Truthfully, the Seven Sisters is a much stronger claim about diffusion; there just seems to be less of a way out.
The question of what it would be like to first identify with one’s inner voice is what pulled me into the rabbit hole that became EToC. This article is my first foray into questions of identity, published when VoM was a tiny pseudo-anon blog about ML and psychometrics. As you can see, the readers were not persuaded that the function of the inner voice had anything to do with conscience. Though truthfully, EToC, as it stands now, seeks to explain the origin of both moral reasoning (proto-conscience) and abstract reasoning, the most popular option. Anyway, grateful for anyone who has stuck around since then despite the change in the tenor of the blog.
EToC v3 doesn’t include a poll because it felt a little gimmicky at the end of a post flirting with the length of a book. But now that you’ve had time to digest it, what do you think of the main arguments? Answer how likely each statement is to be true. The options are in 20% increments. I chose this to make comparisons visually easy, even if some statements are much less likely than others.
I say two or more because Seven Sisters is a gimme. I haven’t found anything in the literature denying that one. (Not that debunking that specific claim is important to many people.)