[MD] Consciousness

[ARLO J BENSINGER JR]

[Krimel]
And someone has to go second. If only the first guy changes, the tribe never
does.

[Arlo]
Moreso than this, that first "baboo" experience HAD to be a simultaneous
revelation that the sound "meant" the food. Long before this, I am sure
"individuals" made sounds in parallel with seeing food. I'd wager that more
than likely the sound maker was unawares of intent, and it was only after
producing a sound when both s/he and some co-present other went "AHA!" as they
mutually understood that that sound could be used to mediate that experience.

Consider Platt's way, the utterer, let's call her Babaa, would have had to have
thought "Gee, I wish there was a way I could get Bubee over there to pay
attention to this plant". In short, "intent" to produce this utterance would
have required an already existing symbolic-language to formulate! (Remember, we
are speculating on the moment in time that the very first, crude,
symbollic-language sign appeared). 

In my understanding, with no intent, the sound only "took" when a
mutual-simultaneous, wonderous "AHA!" moment occurred. This also undergirds
that "social patterns" are... err... "social". They require, at the barest
minimum, two. It is the collective activity of "individuals" made possible by a
shared symbolic representation of experience that is the "social" level. Not
one Lone Genius muttering "Babaa", but two recognizing together that some
unplanned sound could be used to garner power and agency in their world.

And, if we consider Tomasello (I do), that first moment in history when this
occurred likely preceded the "sound". Two "individuals" co-present would have
had a mutual-simultaneous revelation that their attention was "shared" with
another on some object, and this preceded by a split-second the sound (that
both would later understand as the object) was produced.