The Dominoes - Yicheng Ren
‘Language evolved as a way of gossiping. According to this theory Homo sapiens is primarily a social animal. Social cooperation is our key for survival and reproduction… In the wake of the Cognitive Revolution, gossip helped Homo sapiens to form larger and more stable bands.’
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
The idea claims that using language to convey information about other people is a way to build trust. The close relationships between individuals are like Dominoes, and gossip is the force that propels the dominoes. Once the first domino is down, all the rest are down in succession in order. Gossip and information are passed from one person to another and then to yet another, from mouth to mouth. It creates a ‘bridge’, which in turn creates a sense of community and even an ‘imagined common’. The concept alludes to a form of large-scale human cooperation.
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