4.6 Scenario Visualization

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I suggest that the advanced forms of toolmaking evidenced by early hominins

beginning in the Upper Paleolithic industry require conscious visual

processing. However, what exactly does this kind of conscious visual processing

entail? Such an activity entails that a mind be able to scenario

visualize the many different aspects of the toolmaking process. But then,

what is scenario visualization? Scenario visualization is a conscious process

that entails selecting pieces of visual information from a wide range of

possibilities, forming a coherent and organized visual cognition, and then

projecting that visual cognition into some suitable imagined scenario for

the purpose of solving some problem posed by the environment in which

one inhabits.

As an active mental process, scenario visualization would include the

following steps: (1) reception of visual stimulus cues from the external environment, indicating that a problem is present; (2) identifi cation of a

goal to be achieved in terms of a solution to the problem encountered in

some external environment; (3) selection of imagined visual images that

appear to be relevant to the solution from several possible choices of imagined

visual images; (4) integration of the visual images concerning possible

scenarios into organized and coherent imagined visual scenes; (5) integration

of the visual images concerning the imagined problem solving tool

into an organized and coherent perception, vis-à-vis the imagined possible

scenarios; (6) projection of visual images into imagined scenarios to judge

the potential viability or appropriateness of a particular problem solving

tool to a problem; (7) recollection of the particular goal of the project from

memory; and (8) recognition that a particular problem solving tool is

appropriate as a solution in the relevant environment that prompted the

process of scenario visualization in the fi rst place.

Figure 4.3 depicts the mental steps involved in the construction of a

javelin by a member of the species Homo sapiens who lived out in the

African savanna around 40,000 ya. This illustration is supposed to represent

the intelligent processes associated with scenario visualization, so as

to construct a certain kind of javelin in order to solve some adaptive

problem. In this case, the problem to be solved has to do with easily and

effi ciently killing a large antelope for the purposes of skinning it and using

its body parts for food and warmth during the approaching winter months.

I ask you to imagine that this is the very fi rst instance of one of our ancestors

coming up with the idea of the javelin, with the intention of subsequently

manufacturing it. At fi rst, he has no prior knowledge of the javelin,

but through the process of scenario visualization, he eventually “puts two

and two together,” and devises the mental blueprints for the manufacture

of the javelin.

In the top panel of the fi gure, the hunter has separate visual images

associated with antelope characteristics, the manufacture of the bifaced

hand ax, as well as with how projectiles move through the air. The hunter

also has visual images associated with all kinds of other pieces of information

like the faces of the members of his group, a mental map of the

immediate area, some intuitive sense of mechanics and biology, and so

forth. In the second panel, scenario visualization is beginning as the hunter

has not only identifi ed the problem to be solved in the environment and

is selecting imagined visual images that appear to be relevant to the solution

from several possible choices of imagined visual images but also is

integrating the visual images concerning possible scenarios into organized

and coherent imagined visual scenes. In the third panel, the hunter is

The Evolution of the Visual System and Scenario Visualization 115

integrating the visual images concerning the imagined problem solving

tool into an organized and coherent perception, vis-à-vis the imagined

possible scenarios, as well as projecting the visual images into imagined

scenarios to judge the potential viability or appropriateness of a particular

problem solving tool to a problem. In the fourth panel, the hunter has

formed a coherent and organized image of a particular javelin that can be

implemented in the actual production of the javelin and has recognized

that a particular problem solving tool (this particular kind of javelin) is

appropriate as a solution in this environment.

As an active, conscious process scenario visualization is more than merely

the cognitive process of forming a visual image or recalling a visual image

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Scenario 1 Scenario 2

Figure 4.3

The construction of a javelin

from memory; these activities can be performed by nonhuman primates,

mammals, and possibly other animals. When my cat looks at me or the

squirrel outside, she is forming a visual image. And when my cat sees me

open the cabinet door, she most likely comes running because she recalls

the visual image that inside the cabinet is where her treat is located. Such

behaviors exhibited by my cat seem to indicate cognitive visual processing.

However, the process of scenario visualizing requires something more than

mere cognitive awareness of an object in a visual fi eld or cognitive awareness

of a memory. Forming a visual image is part of scenario visualizing;

yet, this is not the full story. Further, depending upon what is being visualized,

recalling a visual image from memory may be part of visualizing, but

again, this is not the full story. Scenario visualization requires a mind that

is more opportunistic, innovative, and creative in the utilization of visual

images through the processes of selectivity, integration, and projection

into future scenarios. It is not the having of visual images that is important;

it is what the mind does in terms of actively selecting and integrating visual

information for the purposes of solving some problem relative to some

environment that really matters.

We are the only species that can visualize in this more complete way,

and what I am suggesting is threefold: First, humans share with other

animals the abilities to select among visual images, as well as integrate and

organize visual information so as to form a coherent visual cognition.

However, humans have the unique abilities to go beyond the present in

order to project visual images into future scenarios, as well as transform

the visual images within a variety of imagined environments so as to solve

some vision-related problem creatively—this is scenario visualization. We

construct novel tools to do work in some environment. We need some

kind of environmental setting in which to construct an artifact precisely

because the artifact, presumably, is going to serve some purpose in some

environment. In order to survive in unstable and changing environments,

hominins evolved a capacity to deal with this instability, whereby they

could visually anticipate the kinds of tools—even novel tools—needed for

a variety of settings.

Second, our capacity to scenario visualize is a central feature of conscious

behavior, an idea that comports well with Sternberg’s (2001) notion of

consciousness’s entailing the setting up of future goals, Carruthers’ (2002)

idea that humans are the only kinds of beings able to generate, and then

reason with, novel suppositions or imaginary scenarios, and Crick & Koch’s

(1999, p. 324) claim that “conscious seeing” requires the brain’s ability to

“form a conscious representation of the visual scene that it then can use

for many different actions or thoughts.”

The Evolution of the Visual System and Scenario Visualization 117

Third, scenario visualization emerged as a natural consequence of our

evolutionary history, which includes the development of a complex

nervous system in association with environmental pressures that occasioned

the evolution of such a function. In attempts to recreate early

hominin tools from the later Mousterian and Upper Paleolithic industries,

archeologists like Mithen (1996, 2001) and Wynn (1979, 1981, 1991, 1993)

have shown that the construction of such tools would require several

mental visualizations, as well as numerous revisions of the material, so as

to attain optimal performance of such tools. Such visualizations likely

included the abilities to, at least, identify horizontal or vertical lines within

a distracting frame, select an image from several possible choices, distinguish

a target fi gure embedded in a complex background, construct an

image of a future scenario, and project an image onto that future scenario,

as well as recall from memory the particular goal of the project. If an

advanced form of toolmaking acts as a mark of consciousness, then given

the complex and changing Pleistocene environments, as well as the scenario

visualization that is necessary to produce tools so as to survive these

environments, what I am suggesting is that visual processing most likely

was the primary way in which this consciousness emerged on the evolutionary

scene (also see Arp, 2005a, 2006a, 2008c).

Scenario visualization is only one aspect of consciousness. There are

several other aspects of consciousness, including self-awareness, intentionality,

indexicality, and qualia-based, perceptual awareness (experience), to

name just a few. Two paragraphs back, I mentioned Sternberg’s (2001) idea

that consciousness comprises the ability to form a belief or set up a goal

that a human being can ultimately act upon. When one scenario visualizes

in order to solve a problem, not only must one have some idea of the

environment in which the solution to the problem presents itself but one

must also have some idea of the goal to be achieved through solving the

problem in that environment. My suggestion is that the aspect of conscious

behavior regarding belief/goal formation works with the aspect of

conscious behavior regarding scenario visualization in order to solve visionrelated

problems creatively. How do these two work together?

I believe these two aspects of conscious behavior mutually inform one

another in a vision-related, problem solving process. In what follows, I

elucidate elements of this conscious process. To start with, some visual cue

causes one to form a belief regarding some goal to be achieved. The goal

to be achieved then causes one to select visual images that seem to be relevant

to the solution to the problem at hand. I say “seem to be relevant”

because, at fi rst, the images are not integrated or organized fully in one’s

mind. In other words, the solution utilizing the certain selected visual images is not seen clearly. This would be kind of like a hunch concerning

the relevance of certain visual images to the solution of some problem.

The integrative aspect of scenario visualization then goes to work,

attempting a variety of possible visual scenarios through manipulating and

adjusting the selected visual images. Again, this integration occurs against

a backdrop of some kind of environment, since the solution to the problem

must be believed to be relevant in some situation. Once a visual scenario

comes into view clearly or is clarifi ed in one’s mind as being appropriate

to solve some problem in an environment, the visual scenario then informs

the goal that has been set up at the beginning of the entire process. A

solution is then believed to be the accurate one to pursue, and the person

sets out to actually solve the problem through constructing some tool,

devising some plan, and so forth.