Memory, Time, and Language

Abstract

Natural selection is inevitably oriented toward the future. Many of thecharacteristics that are selected have to do with the ways in which ani-mals behave – how they feed, fight, flee, and mate, or how they con-struct niches for successful living. If one animal, say a warthog,spends time digging a burrow whereas another does not bother, thefirst has a safe haven for the future survival of a lion attack and the second does not. Behaviours that increase reproductive fitness, ensur-ing that the individual’s genes will be continued into future genera-tions, will be selected at the expense of those that place futuregenerations at greater risk, or that threaten reproduction itself.Behaviour itself is complex, and selected at many different levels. Theway ants behave, for example, is rather different from the way anAfrican lion disports itself on the savanna, or the way people behaveon the New York Stock Exchange – although there are no doubt similarities as well as differences.In this chapter, we start by proposing a hierarchy of behaviouraladaptations, culminating in an adaptation that may help explain behav-ioural characteristics unique to our own species. This adaptation ismental time travel, and is based on the recording of specific events inthe past, and the imagining ofspecific events in the future. Mental timetravel is responsible for many human attributes, such as the ability toindividually plan our futures in detail, and perhaps for phenomenasuch as religious belief and ideas about life after death. We argue thatour ability to transcend time may lie at the heart of another capacitygenerally regarded as uniquely human. That capacity is language.

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