# Homunculus Man Created: 2022_06_28 23:07 Tags: [[Psychology]] [[Neurology]] ![[Homunculus.png]] This is the representation of what your brain can control and manipulate (motor movement) *scaled proportionally to how much of your brain is needed for it*. Two things jump out: 1. The *head and face are overrepresented* because of the complexity in expression and, through *verbal language*, we need especially quick and dexterous movement of our tongue to create audible speech. 2. The *hands are overrepresented* because they're our main *interface with the outside world*, they are dexterous yet strong enough to allow us to be able to manipulate objects in extremely precise ways. And even within the hand, *the thumb is overrepresented* due to its crucial *importance in allowing us to grasp things*. We often attribute much of the intellect of humans to their ability to communicate, verbally and non-verbally. But it actually *would be useless if we were unable to manipulate the world around us*. Intellect alone would get us to the same place as dolphins, smart on paper but with little ability to show for it. Our *hands gave us reason to develop communication* because once we were capable of developing tools with greater and greater precision, we needed a way to communicate it with others for our survival, early humans did not offer much in terms of defenses (actually quite weak in some ways such as our exposed stomachs with important organs with no protection) but made up for that in their ability to create tools and communicate for coordinated attacks. ## References - [[Maps of Meaning - Jordan Peterson]]