I used to have strong interests, but it’s been harder to feel connected to them in recent years.
I’d like to see if anyone else here shares them:
If any of this overlaps with what you enjoy, I’d like to know what specifically you’re focusing on within it.
Physics 
(all of it)
Cosmology (all of it)
Linux (since 1995. I haven't used anything else in over a decade.)
Retro computing (though only in the sense that I've been around long enough to have fond memories)
History (all of it)
Creativity (more from the appreciation side)
they seem to be spending too much on colliders
Have you watched the 3 Body Problem TV series?
I watched the original chinese version which is a bit long winded at 30 episodes but covers the whole book.
Some very interesting physics is covered and some, err, stretched ideas as to why physics is unreliable at present.
I think the Americans are remaking it.
Yes people can be protective of their niche and some archaeologists have been possessive of their research too, especially in early archaeological endeavours, when untrained men with money and connections went off round the world to look for treasure.
Even in more recent times, some archaeologists are well known for not publishing the results of their research, or not publishing in a timely fashion, so lots of data is sitting in files that is yet to be put into a report with conclusions. It is senseless to cause destruction to archaeological sites if nothing positive is going to come of it.
Interestingly, someone who worked on the Channel 4 TV programme “Time Team” (that used to be on in the 1990s) told me that the archaeological sites were dug up and never recorded or put into a site report or final report. I was taken aback to learn this, so I searched online unsuccessfully, and wrote to Channel 4 asking where reports could be accessed, but didn’t get a reply.
Thankfully, most archaeologists now are conscientious and always write up archaeological site reports. Universities often have ‘public archaeology’ lectures or workshops, and moder archaeological techniques mean that destruction of archaeology and the environment isn’t always necessary.
I got that Josephine Quinn book when I first came out, it's brilliant.
I know what you mean about "ritual deposits", maybe a better term would "intentional deposits", something depositied with more meaning than chucking something in the bin, although midden heaps are archaeological gold mines. But you're right, nobody has come up with a better explaination despite years of trying, ritual and sympbolic thinking do seem to be core to human brains and thinking.
I love a multidisciplinary approach too, over the last 30 odd years that I've been interested in ancient history, i've seen so many attitudes change, probably the biggest is a multidisciplinary approach, previously people were so protective of their academic niche it actually stiffled new discoveries. I remember when using wear patterns on rocks to help with dating them was seen as thoroughly contravercial and on a par with conspiracy theories. There was so much racism too, with discoveries made by Indian underwater researchers showing the remains of the Indus valley culture were totally snobbily downgraded by white academics because they didn't trust the methodology of "colonials".
Hi, I am interested in a bit of cosomology, Big Big Theory-Cosmic inflation and James Webb telescope and Vera Rubin. Hot stuff. I studied a module on science and creation at university. I also used to moderate on a computer forum so I can be a bit geeky and I love crunching numbers on SSD and memory. I would repair them to and get a solder out. I like some history to. I started a post about interests and it was well responded to.
You might like this post that I started on another autism forum about cosomology, you don't have to register to view it.
The ‘Human’ series was fascinating indeed and the rock markings cannot be mistaken as incidental abrasion, rather than deliberate intention.
i would have liked to have understood more about how much time could have elapsed between making the tools and their deliberate burning and breakage. I am always reticent when deposits like these are interpreted as highly indicative of an offering, but as no credible alternative has been proposed, it is a valid suggestion.
On the subject of one sided written records, this was a key theme in the book, “How the World Made the West” by Josephine Quinn, in which she shows how Britain was shaped by things around the world, rather than simply Greek and Roman classical civilisation.
There are some things we may rely on a bit more such as Egyptian accounts of poor harvests and long winters, little sun that come from the destruction of Thera, modern day Santorini,
I love that historians and archaeologists, together with geologists, palaeontologists, anthropologists, biologists, meteorologists, etc, draw on interdisciplinary evidence to give us a deeper and fuller understanding of the past, such as you describe.
Here is a clip of the rock markings from the TV series ‘Human’.
ArchaeC, one fo the fascinating things about the recent documentary series Human was an enormous rock that had been enhanced to make it appear more snake like, it's thought to be one of if not the earliest signs of symbolic thought.
Most pre-historic evedence isn't recorded in writing and when it is it's often problematic as its so one sided, like we know a little about Britain just before and at the time of the Roman invasion, as the people of Britain didn't leave any writing of thier own, we have to rely on Roman sources who were hostile. There are some things we may rely on a bit more such as Egyptian accounts of poor harvests and long winters, little sun that come from the destruction of Thera, modern day Santorini, so widespread were the effects that they were written about by many literate societies of the time, such as India. These sources are only just being "rediscovered" by Western scholars who've traditionally been very wary and dismissive of non European sources.
History, ancient and medieval history in particular, anything after the Roundheads and Cavaliers and my eyes glaze over.
There was a really good BBC program called Human on a couple of weeks ago, going from multiple types of human to how we ended up with just us.
My knowledge of unix is old and rusty. I used to use Sun workstations (thin clients) to connect to a Cray supercomputer to help with software optimisation, before I got into telecoms.
I keep an eye on physics developments, but they seem to be spending too much on colliders. There are other interesting problems.
Homo floresiensis
Were these the ones found in a cave in Asia? Small and 3ft-4ft in height?
Homo floresiensis demonstrates miniaturisation, as you'd expect on an island with limited resources. Other animals do the same.
The question is what the driver is for people to be particularly large. Especially given diseases, availability of quality food and the problems with childbirth.
Of course exceptional individuals are possible due to pituitary problems. But such individuals struggle for calories and nutrition and are shorter lived.
But claims for a race of giants doesn't seem to have much evidence to me.
Not all prehistoric evidence is recorded in writing! There may be speculation over some aspects, but we can say much from archaeological analysis of pottery, from scientific analysis of clay composition to representation of culture - DNA - agriculture, diet, health …. There are many facts.
gothic/surreal art
Zdzisław Beksiński?
Since it's prehistory, by definition, there's no historical record.
Which leaves it open to interpretation and speculation based of patchy evidence. Interesting but always subject to revision.
There's some fanciful stuff out there.
But the antikythera mechanism, albeit not prehistory, points to more sophistication than some allow.
People 10,000 or 50,000 were not mentally much different to now. The problem is we have issues to piece it together from what ever scraps survived.
prehistoric humanity
Who isn’t interested in this? I’m no expert but it’s fascinating all the same.
You have/used to have a wide range of interests.
Within those, my interest in Neolithic Archaeology in the Levant might fit in your prehistoric humanity category? I am particularly interested in art and representation within early communities in that part of the world, Neolithic anthropomorphic figurines (also Iron Age figurines) meaning and function, plaster skulls, evolving religion.
