2006/12/01 by Keith Roberts
Decision Sciences · Engineering · Medicine · #Anatomy and Medical Technology #Empathy and Medical Education #Interdisciplinary Research and Collaboration
paper · pdf · doi:10.1042/bio02806007
openalex publication_date 2006/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Once upon a time, a very long time ago, and long before they were around, neither art nor science mattered so much as where the next meal came from. But around 30000 years ago, early humans suddenly began to make images and, for reasons that have never been very satisfactorily explained, that new set of image-making skills must have been useful, in that it was somehow selected for, and persists to this day. Most of us, even if it was just as kids, have made images: drawings, doodles or paintings. Sight is a remarkable sense, and it may well be that image making was part of an evolutionary process for obtaining visual knowledge, a way of comprehending our visible environment more effectively and making sense of it1.