<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=Windows-1252">
</head>
<body>
<p dir="ltr" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; background-color: white; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: black;">The CEU Department of Cognitive Science cordially invites you to the following talk by:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; background-color: white; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(33, 33, 33);"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(149, 79, 114);"><u><a href="https://telaviv.academia.edu/DanielDor" title="https://telaviv.academia.edu/DanielDor" data-outlook-id="2b76b330-6fd6-415b-9f4b-41d182f11950" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114); margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Daniel
Dor</a></u></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(33, 33, 33);"> (Tel Aviv University)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(33, 33, 33);"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; background-color: white; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: black;">Date:</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; color: rgb(32, 31, 30);"> <b>Wednesday</b></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; color: black;"><b>,
November 19, 2025 </b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; background-color: white; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: black;">Time</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; color: rgb(32, 31, 30); background-color: white;">:
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; color: black;"><b>4 pm (t</b></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; color: rgb(32, 31, 30);"><b>o 5:30 pm) CET</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(33, 33, 33);">Venue</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; color: rgb(32, 31, 30);">:
<b>D00</b></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; color: rgb(33, 33, 33);"><b>2</b></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; color: rgb(32, 31, 30);"><b> </b>(QS Vienna) and
<b>Zoom: </b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(149, 79, 114);"><u><a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ceu-edu.zoom.us/j/97850682852?pwd%3D5r6K3CIvcBXnPqPejCPAv0pb5bc7uS.1&sa=D&source=calendar&usd=2&usg=AOvVaw3CdwkN1o-Gw7lu_SB6lXdO" target="_blank" title="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ceu-edu.zoom.us/j/97850682852?pwd%3D5r6K3CIvcBXnPqPejCPAv0pb5bc7uS.1&sa=D&source=calendar&usd=2&usg=AOvVaw3CdwkN1o-Gw7lu_SB6lXdO" data-outlook-id="4b0c5228-7615-4743-acc7-45bab4fc7beb" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114); margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">https://ceu-edu.zoom.us/j/97850682852?pwd=5r6K3CIvcBXnPqPejCPAv0pb5bc7uS.1</a></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(33, 33, 33);">Meeting ID: 978 5068 2852<br>
Passcode: 786581</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: black;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; background-color: white; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: black;"><b>Chair:</b> Eva Wittenberg</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; background-color: white; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(33, 33, 33);"> </span></p>
<p style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: black;"><b>Title:
</b>Mimesis, Language and the Emergence of Collaborative Computation in Human Evolution</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: black;"> </span></p>
<p style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: black;"><b>Abstract:
</b>In this paper, I will present the backbone of a new perspective on human evolution. First, I will suggest that our uniqueness as a species lies in the fact that we base our survival on collaborative computation. The other animals (with the possible exception
of social insects) rely on individualistic computation: even when they cooperate and communicate, learn from each other and (in the case of apes) read each other’s minds, each individual involved makes all the mental computations required on its own, within
its nervous system. Our nervous systems, on the other hand, while still partially autonomous, function as nodes (end-users) on our social networks – where the computational challenges (of perception, learning, memory, prediction, decision-making etc.) are
met through intensive mental collaboration.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: black;">Second, I will claim that Collaborative computation requires a new general type of communication, which I will call instructive communication:
when A instructs B, A intervenes in B’s mental dynamics, instructing it in the process of understanding the message. This is exactly what the other animals do not do when they communicate.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: black;">This characterization of our uniqueness allows for a new two-staged perspective on the process of human evolution. In the first stage,
from around two million years ago (in Homo erectus), collaborative computation was made possible for the first time by the uniquely human communicative toolkit of mimesis: mimetic communication, especially the pointing gesture, allows for the systematic instruction
of the computations involved in perception, and thus allows for collaborative computation as long as the contents are available for direct experiencing by the participants.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: black;">In the second stage (probably in late erectus), based on mimesis, language began to allow communicators to break the barrier of direct
experiencing, and collaborate in the computation of contents that lie beyond the here and now. As I show in earlier publications, the architecture of language is specifically designed (by cultural evolution) for the instruction of the computations involved
in imagination. </span></p>
<p class="xelementtoproof" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; color: rgb(32, 31, 30);"><b>*</b></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: black;">Anyone not affiliated with CEU wishing to attend in-person in Vienna
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(149, 79, 114);"><u><a href="https://forms.office.com/e/PSZ6qREXTr" title="https://forms.office.com/e/PSZ6qREXTr" data-outlook-id="99018e25-a58a-4520-bb40-713ba95408b2" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114); margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">must
reply here</a></u></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: black;"> to get access to the lecture hall.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; background-color: white; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; color: rgb(32, 31, 30);"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; background-color: white; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; color: rgb(32, 31, 30);"><b>If you would like to schedule a meeting with the speaker, please send an email to wittenberge@ceu.edu.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; background-color: white; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: black;"> </span></p>
<div dir="ltr" style="font-family: Aptos, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
<br>
</div>
<div id="ms-outlook-mobile-signature">
<p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Light", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Light", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><b>Eva Wittenberg</b></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Light", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; color: rgb(5, 99, 193);"><u><a href="http://lcl.ceu.edu" data-outlook-id="6cf257f4-d844-4ff3-a6af-f54666580cb6" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193); margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">http://lcl.ceu.edu</a></u></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Light", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Light", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Department of Cognitive Science</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Light", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Central European University</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Light", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Quellenstr. 51</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Light", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">1100 Vienna</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Light", sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">AUSTRIA</span></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>