As a solution to the puzzle of the origins of language, this innateness hypothesiswould seem to point to something in human genetics, possibly a crucial mutation, asthe source. This would not have been a gradual change, but something that happenedrather quickly. We are not sure when this proposed genetic change might have takenplace or how it might relate to the physical adaptations described earlier. However, aswe consider this hypothesis, we find our speculations about the origins of languagemoving away from fossil evidence or the physical source of basic human soundstoward analogies with how computers work (e.g. being pre-programmed or hardwired) and concepts taken from the study of genetics. The investigation of the originsof language then turns into a search for the special “language gene” that only humanspossess.