The root of all of this artistic expression and cognitive power is what Deacon regards as “the most incredible gift any species ever received at the hands of evolution” - the human capacity for symbolic representation, meaning the ability to hold a version of reality within our minds, using abstract patterns to model real world behavior.[32] According to Deacon, the capacity for symbolic reasoning is our defining attribute, having co-evolved with language over a period of about two million years.

The root of all of this artistic expression and cognitive power is what Deacon regards as “the most incredible gift any species ever received at the hands of evolution” - the human capacity for symbolic representation, meaning the ability to hold a version of reality within our minds, using abstract patterns to model real world behavior.[32]  According to Deacon, the capacity for symbolic reasoning is our defining attribute, having co-evolved with language over a period of about two million years.