History & humanities

Links about history & humanities that Hacker News readers keep rediscovering.

Hall of Fame: 40
Candidates: 71
Types: 7
Median span: 7.2 yrs

Browse History & humanities by type

Every link below is about history & humanities and belongs to the selected type.

7 types

Essays & writing 63 History & humanities links 25 Hall · 38 Candidates Reference 36 History & humanities links 10 Hall · 26 Candidates Tools, games & demos 6 History & humanities links 3 Hall · 3 Candidates Books & learning 3 History & humanities links 1 Hall · 2 Candidates Audio, video & images 1 History & humanities link 1 Hall · 0 Candidates Research & data 1 History & humanities link 0 Hall · 1 Candidates Sites & organizations 1 History & humanities link 0 Hall · 1 Candidates

Strongest Hall records

40 items

What You Can't Say (2004)

www.paulgraham.com Essays & writing 31 submissions · 31 people · 14.5 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2014-03 Resurfaced 2022-03-16

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Reality has a surprising amount of detail (2017)

johnsalvatier.org Essays & writing 19 submissions · 17 people · 9.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2020-01 Resurfaced 2025-02-18

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Keep Your Identity Small (2009)

www.paulgraham.com Essays & writing 13 submissions · 12 people · 13.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2017-09 Resurfaced 2021-06-07

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Hiroshima (1946)

www.newyorker.com Essays & writing 17 submissions · 14 people · 10.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2018-11 Resurfaced 2025-08-02

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Shapecatcher: Draw the Unicode character you want

shapecatcher.com Tools, games & demos 17 submissions · 16 people · 13.2 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2017-05 Resurfaced 2025-01-18

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North American Regional Dialects and Accents (2016)

aschmann.net Tools, games & demos 11 submissions · 11 people · 15.3 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2017-09 Resurfaced 2026-04-16

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Life is Short

paulgraham.com Essays & writing 14 submissions · 13 people · 10.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2020-08 Resurfaced 2022-12-25

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How Automakers Invented the Crime of “Jaywalking”

www.vox.com Essays & writing 11 submissions · 11 people · 11.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2018-08 Resurfaced 2023-10-12

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Bouba/kiki effect

en.wikipedia.org Reference 21 submissions · 21 people · 16.6 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-06 Resurfaced 2024-06-16

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Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard (1992)

pinyin.info Essays & writing 12 submissions · 12 people · 17.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2014-04 Resurfaced 2018-12-13

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Cold Showers

github.com Reference 9 submissions · 9 people · 7.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-01 Resurfaced 2025-11-03

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Who Goes Nazi? (1941)

harpers.org Essays & writing 12 submissions · 12 people · 10.1 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2019-12 Resurfaced 2026-03-13

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Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds (2017)

www.newyorker.com Essays & writing 12 submissions · 12 people · 6.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-11 Resurfaced 2024-11-03

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Inventors killed by their own inventions

en.wikipedia.org Reference 16 submissions · 16 people · 11.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2019-06 Resurfaced 2021-02-07

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E-Prime: English without the verb 'to be'

en.wikipedia.org Reference 9 submissions · 9 people · 16.2 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2020-05 Resurfaced 2021-05-26

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Using the wrong dictionary (2014)

jsomers.net Essays & writing 14 submissions · 13 people · 11.5 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2021-12 Resurfaced 2023-09-03

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Why Nerds are Unpopular (2003)

www.paulgraham.com Essays & writing 12 submissions · 12 people · 10.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2017-01 Resurfaced 2020-10-07

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For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off from All Human Contact (2013)

www.smithsonianmag.com Essays & writing 12 submissions · 12 people · 9.9 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2020-04 Resurfaced 2024-01-11

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WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996)

sfwriter.com Essays & writing 9 submissions · 5 people · 11.7 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-06 Resurfaced 2024-06-26

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Most of What We Read on the Internet is Written by Insane People

www.reddit.com Essays & writing 6 submissions · 6 people · 7.1 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-09 Resurfaced 2022-09-19

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A Spectre is Haunting Unicode

www.dampfkraft.com Essays & writing 5 submissions · 5 people · 5.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-05 Resurfaced 2022-07-14

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Thought-Terminating Cliché

en.wikipedia.org Reference 10 submissions · 9 people · 5.9 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2026-02 Resurfaced 2026-02-04

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Announcing your plans makes you less motivated to accomplish them (2009)

sivers.org Essays & writing 9 submissions · 9 people · 10.3 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2019-09 Resurfaced 2019-09-26

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Great Vowel Shift

en.wikipedia.org Reference 6 submissions · 6 people · 9.1 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2021-04 Resurfaced 2021-04-14

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When the U.S. air force discovered the flaw of averages

www.thestar.com Essays & writing 7 submissions · 7 people · 6.5 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2020-04 Resurfaced 2022-07-09

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What Did Ada Lovelace’s Program Actually Do?

twobithistory.org Essays & writing 7 submissions · 7 people · 6.3 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-12 Resurfaced 2024-12-16

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Tarrare

en.wikipedia.org Reference 6 submissions · 6 people · 7.1 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-01 Resurfaced 2022-01-16

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Screenshots from developers and Unix people taken in 2002

anders.unix.se Audio, video & images 6 submissions · 6 people · 10.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2026-02 Resurfaced 2019-06-10

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Stoicism's appeal to the rich and powerful (2019)

www.exurbe.com Essays & writing 6 submissions · 6 people · 6.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2025-03 Resurfaced 2025-03-14

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Isambard Kingdom Brunel

en.wikipedia.org Reference 6 submissions · 6 people · 9.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-10 Resurfaced 2023-10-10

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The Church of Interruption

sambleckley.com Essays & writing 7 submissions · 7 people · 6.3 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-08 Resurfaced 2022-08-21

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Which word begins with "y" and looks like an axe in this picture? (2017)

english.stackexchange.com Essays & writing 5 submissions · 5 people · 6.6 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-01 Resurfaced 2024-01-17

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Byte Magazine Special Issue: Smalltalk (1984)

archive.org Books & learning 6 submissions · 6 people · 8.6 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-08 Resurfaced 2022-08-11

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Below the Surface – Finds from an archaeological project in the River Amstel

belowthesurface.amsterdam Tools, games & demos 6 submissions · 6 people · 7.5 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2026-01 Resurfaced 2026-01-11

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The Awful German Language (1880)

faculty.georgetown.edu Essays & writing 5 submissions · 5 people · 4.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2025-05 Resurfaced 2025-05-16

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Burned House Horizon

en.wikipedia.org Reference 7 submissions · 6 people · 4.2 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2021-03 Resurfaced 2021-03-06

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Your real biological clock is you’re going to die (2018)

hmmdaily.com Essays & writing 5 submissions · 5 people · 7.2 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2026-01 Resurfaced 2026-01-02

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TV detector van

en.wikipedia.org Reference 5 submissions · 5 people · 5.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-12 Resurfaced 2023-12-14

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The medieval habit of ‘two sleeps’

www.bbc.com Essays & writing 5 submissions · 5 people · 4.3 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2026-04 Resurfaced 2024-02-02

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Why Don’t We Use Chemical Weapons Anymore?

acoup.blog Essays & writing 6 submissions · 6 people · 2.5 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-10 Resurfaced 2022-10-06

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Recently resurfaced in history & humanities

latest 20+ point return

North American Regional Dialects and Accents (2016)

aschmann.net Tools, games & demos 11 submissions · 11 people · 15.3 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2017-09 Resurfaced 2026-04-16

261max pts

Who Goes Nazi? (1941)

harpers.org Essays & writing 12 submissions · 12 people · 10.1 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2019-12 Resurfaced 2026-03-13

197max pts

Thought-Terminating Cliché

en.wikipedia.org Reference 10 submissions · 9 people · 5.9 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2026-02 Resurfaced 2026-02-04

138max pts

Below the Surface – Finds from an archaeological project in the River Amstel

belowthesurface.amsterdam Tools, games & demos 6 submissions · 6 people · 7.5 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2026-01 Resurfaced 2026-01-11

522max pts

Your real biological clock is you’re going to die (2018)

hmmdaily.com Essays & writing 5 submissions · 5 people · 7.2 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2026-01 Resurfaced 2026-01-02

103max pts

Candidates

Browse 71 candidates

List of Cognitive Biases

en.wikipedia.org Reference 36 submissions · 35 people · 15.2 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2019-07-02

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo

en.wikipedia.org Reference 24 submissions · 24 people · 16.1 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-09-07

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Münchhausen trilemma

en.wikipedia.org Reference 12 submissions · 12 people · 12.3 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2020-03-19

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Happy Petrov day

en.wikipedia.org Reference 17 submissions · 17 people · 15.7 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-09-26

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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General Motors Streetcar Conspiracy

en.wikipedia.org Reference 14 submissions · 9 people · 9.9 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2024-04-30

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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IQ is largely a pseudoscientific swindle

medium.com Essays & writing 10 submissions · 8 people · 6.4 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-11-19

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Experience the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing

www.firstmenonthemoon.com Tools, games & demos 14 submissions · 14 people · 11.8 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2024-08-30

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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The Early History Of Smalltalk (1993)

worrydream.com Research & data 12 submissions · 12 people · 9.4 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-04-17

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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The Chinese Room Argument

plato.stanford.edu Reference 13 submissions · 13 people · 16.0 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2019-02-03

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Chesterton's Fence: A Lesson in Second Order Thinking

fs.blog Essays & writing 10 submissions · 10 people · 4.1 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-12-15

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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"Secret" History of Silicon Valley (2008)

steveblank.com Reference 10 submissions · 8 people · 11.7 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2020-06-18

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Chekhov's Gun

en.wikipedia.org Reference 6 submissions · 6 people · 10.1 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2021-09-05

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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English is weirdly different from other languages

aeon.co Essays & writing 7 submissions · 6 people · 9.5 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2025-05-01

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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The Missing 11th of the Month (2015)

drhagen.com Essays & writing 11 submissions · 11 people · 9.5 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2025-06-18

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Sergey Brin's awesome webpage.

infolab.stanford.edu Sites & organizations 8 submissions · 8 people · 13.2 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2014-03-20

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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They Thought They Were Free (1955)

press.uchicago.edu Books & learning 3 submissions · 3 people · 4.9 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2025-09-21

Needs:5 submissions

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Simple Sabotage Field Manual (1944) [pdf]

www.cia.gov Books & learning 7 submissions · 7 people · 7.2 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2020-02-13

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Quotes

paulgraham.com Reference 7 submissions · 7 people · 14.1 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2017-05-11

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

plato.stanford.edu Reference 8 submissions · 7 people · 10.6 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-06-23

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

160max pts

Why the Arabic World Turned Away from Science (2011)

www.thenewatlantis.com Essays & writing 4 submissions · 3 people · 8.3 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2024-04-05

Needs:5 submissions

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The Graphical User Interface Gallery

toastytech.com Reference 5 submissions · 5 people · 12.5 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-03-26

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Five Laws of Human Stupidity (1976)

harmful.cat-v.org Essays & writing 7 submissions · 7 people · 11.2 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-07-28

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Why did we wait so long for the bicycle?

rootsofprogress.org Essays & writing 3 submissions · 3 people · 4.7 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2024-03-21

Needs:5 submissions

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What If You Could Do It All Over?

www.newyorker.com Essays & writing 5 submissions · 5 people · 4.5 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2025-06-04

Needs:3 active years

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The short, tormented life of computer genius Phil Katz (2000)

www.bbsdocumentary.com Essays & writing 4 submissions · 4 people · 9.3 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2016-12-11

Needs:5 submissions

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Is There Anything Good About Men?

denisdutton.com Essays & writing 6 submissions · 6 people · 13.9 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2016-11-11

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Stoicism: Indifference is a power

aeon.co Essays & writing 3 submissions · 3 people · 9.2 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2026-01-13

Needs:5 submissions

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Gödel's Ontological Proof

en.wikipedia.org Reference 4 submissions · 4 people · 10.6 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2019-07-28

Needs:5 submissions

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New approaches shed light on the magnitude of sex differences in personality

blogs.scientificamerican.com Essays & writing 5 submissions · 4 people · 3.0 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2021-05-05

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Epistemic Learned Helplessness (2019)

slatestarcodex.com Essays & writing 4 submissions · 4 people · 6.1 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2024-01-12

Needs:5 submissions

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Toki Pona: A Language with a Hundred Words (2015)

www.theatlantic.com Essays & writing 6 submissions · 3 people · 5.6 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2021-10-27

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Vela Incident

en.wikipedia.org Reference 9 submissions · 9 people · 4.1 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-11-13

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Potoooooooo

en.wikipedia.org Reference 5 submissions · 5 people · 10.4 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2025-01-16

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Simulacra and Simulation

en.wikipedia.org Reference 6 submissions · 5 people · 8.4 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2020-05-12

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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Daisugi, the 600-year-old Japanese technique of growing trees out of other trees

www.openculture.com Essays & writing 3 submissions · 3 people · 4.4 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-10-04

Needs:5 submissions

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In 1980s Los Angeles, a bank was robbed every hour (2019)

crimereads.com Essays & writing 3 submissions · 3 people · 4.4 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-10-21

Needs:5 submissions

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Whole Earth Index

wholeearth.info Reference 7 submissions · 7 people · 2.0 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2025-10-28

Needs:3 active years

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Where have you gone, Peter Norton? (2014)

www.technologizer.com Essays & writing 5 submissions · 4 people · 7.6 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-01-04

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

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The enduring mystery of ‘Jawn,’ Philadelphia’s all-purpose noun (2016)

www.atlasobscura.com Essays & writing 3 submissions · 3 people · 3.9 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-09-16

Needs:5 submissions

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The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976)

en.wikipedia.org Reference 3 submissions · 3 people · 10.3 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2021-07-22

Needs:5 submissions

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