HOW DID THEY!?

Communication has existed as long as humans have

my guess is that it would be object-oriented instead of word-oriented. For example, when someone thinks of an "apple", they don't perceive the word "apple" but rather the physical qualities of an apple

makes sense

Just like me to your mom

Language has always existed.

language couldn't have always existed, there must've been some point in early human history where people didn't speak any languages at all

Communication has always existed. Hell, fxcking is a type of communication, and beings that reproduce sexually are obviously no stranger to that. Scent, posture and gestures, grunts--all forms of language.

I'm sure early hominins thought in terms of fxcking. I'm a consumate wordsmith and even I think in terms of fxcking.

so you're telling me the only thing early humans thought about was f*cking?

Lol, not at all! They ate too, silly. It would have been necessary to think about coordinating hunting efforts. Those woolly mammoths didn't stampede themselves off cliffs to extinction all by themselves!

They might have dabbled in scrawling lines in caves with charcoal and looking up at the night sky wondering why all the tiny dots kept moving, but I bet most of their clock cycles were taken up with thoughts pertaining to eating and fxcking.

I mean, there WERE other early proto-humans who weren't wired to constantly think about eating and screwing. Curiously, they all died out. XD

I'm sure there probably were more things to think about, like finding shelter, caring for family members, etc, but really we may never know exactly what was going on in their primitive brains.

Before language it would have been feelings, primarily fear, that occupied their head space. It's hard to pin down the very first sentient thought, but it probably came shortly after ingesting psilocybin, peyote or some other naturally occurring psychedelic substance, and would most likely have been along the lines of "oh my god, I'm tripping balls." Bam, the birth of language, religion and recreational drug use.

stoned ape theory in a nutshell