It’s the unwritten rule of every talk on cultural evolution: there must be at least one picture of someone whispering into someone else’s ear. This represents language being passed on from one generation to the next, with the language possibly changing (like in the child’s game broken telephone or chinese whispers). This classic image often makes an appearance:
However, most are boring old stock images. So, I’m setting a challenge: who can find the most awesome ‘broken telephone’ picture?
This is my submission:
Image by Craig Barritt / Getty Images, found at The 45 Most Legendary Pictures Ever Taken.
I’m going for classic movie whispers. Or whispering sloth. Or the imortal “purple monkey dishwasher” moment on the Simpsons.
THESE ARE AMAZING. All I need now is an experiment where each picture captures a different condition.
Someone just sent me a presentation where they’ve used a sloth to represent a being in a socio-cultural vacuum. So this could work.