The ROBA Hypothesis: A Thermodynamic Model of Human Violence and Language

The ROBA Hypothesis identifies human violence as “recursive object-based aggression (ROBA),” which is unique to and universal among humans. The ability to use objects in combat renders human weaponry a “wildcard,” differentiating it from the known, “natural” weapons in animal combat. In human combat, the antagonists must then use recursion to best estimate the weapons of the opponent. While the hypothesis agrees that recursive language is also unique to humans, the fact that violence and language both utilize recursion means they are downstream from a more minimal recursive property, which is established by the connection between object usage and combat. Violence and language are then redefined as different “thermodynamic” states of recursion, with the “heat” of the recursion increasing in whichever state it is in. Violence is recursion’s active state, where it escalates to an extreme, apocalyptic scenario, and violence may be deferred when transferred to language, its symbolic state, producing innovations, institutions, and culture overall. It can then bring this increased “heat” back to its active state, producing higher orders of violence than previously possible. This demands more complex language to draw recursion back into its symbolic state. The ROBA Hypothesis also posits that this process drives self-domestication, whereby neural crest cells are impeded from migrating to the extremities, just as in animal domestication. This produces traits like white palms and white sclera, further aiding in the use of language as a means to defer violence.