Page 289 - Flipping book The Adam Paradox Hypothesis - Second Edition.pdf

Qafzeh Cave
A Levantine site (~92,000 years ago) with burials, ochre, and shell beads. Symbolic
sparks without continuity.
Ready Genome (Ṣalsāl ka-l-Fakhkhār)
The human genome stabilized between 180–250 kya, preparing the vessel for
symbolic ignition. Metaphorically likened to clay refined into pottery.
Six-Step Cycle
The APH method: Beacon → Hypothesis → Proxy → Prediction → Test →
Falsifier. Keeps the hypothesis accountable to science.
Skhul Cave
A burial site in the Levant (~120,000 years ago) with ochre and ornaments, an early
but fragile symbolic gesture.
Spirit
The infusion of imagination and creativity that allowed humans to envision the
unseen and generate symbols.
SRGAP2C
A human-specific gene duplication that extended brain plasticity, enabling
prolonged learning and symbolic thinking.
Symbols
Durable marks, objects, and words that preserve meaning across generations and
form the foundation of culture.
Synchrony Problem
The paradox that symbolic artifacts appeared almost simultaneously worldwide
around 70,000 years ago, inconsistent with gradualist models.
Tattersall, Ian
Paleoanthropologist who emphasized that modern cognition was a qualitative
event, not a gradual trend.
Threshold
A sudden qualitative leap rather than gradual change. In APH, the ignition of
symbolic cognition and responsibility.
Trust
The social threshold where humans developed contracts, promises, and moral law,
enabling large-scale cooperation.
Y-Chromosomal Adam
The most recent paternal ancestor of living men, dated to ~180,000–250,000 years
ago, marking a genetic anchor of readiness.