"I guess I regard physics as part of communication, and a lot of people don't."
Been avoiding posting for a while, but this is too good to pass up:
I highly recommend watching In My Language (8:35), a video as written, acted, and produced by an autistic woman. It contains first a bit "spoken" in her "native language" (language is not necessarily the correct concept), and later explained in English. It is probably the best explanation/example of that type of thought I've seen, and has a very well spoken political/social message as well.
The basic idea of the political message, I believe, is a similar one that I have argued about in other forms - the idea that things like lifestyle, sexual orientation, lifestyle, drug use, language, and other defining characteristics of a person all represent different modes of thought. It can therefor be said that arguments affecting these topics are really trying to affect/restrict thought itself. The request put forth in this video is very simple - to ask that "normal" people try and learn a little about other modes of thought, instead of demanding that "incorrect" thought be pushed away. Conformity has always been the major opponent of various civil rights issues in the past; this is probably an angle that many people have not considered before, though.
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On an unrelated note, I also highly recommend the movie PRIMER to anyone who hasn't seen it yet. (torrent) It won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2004, on a budget of only $7000. Easily the most accurate depiction of the engineering discovery/creation process put to film yet.
I suggest taking notes on a 2nd viewing - it will take at least that much effort to follow the plot. From the wiki: "Anybody who claims they fully understand what's going on in Primer after seeing it just once is either a savant or a liar." (note - don't read the wiki. Even the table of contents is a huge spoiler) A few physics refresher courses on Feynman Diagrams may help with the graph you'll need to draw to fully understand the movie...
I highly recommend watching In My Language (8:35), a video as written, acted, and produced by an autistic woman. It contains first a bit "spoken" in her "native language" (language is not necessarily the correct concept), and later explained in English. It is probably the best explanation/example of that type of thought I've seen, and has a very well spoken political/social message as well.
The basic idea of the political message, I believe, is a similar one that I have argued about in other forms - the idea that things like lifestyle, sexual orientation, lifestyle, drug use, language, and other defining characteristics of a person all represent different modes of thought. It can therefor be said that arguments affecting these topics are really trying to affect/restrict thought itself. The request put forth in this video is very simple - to ask that "normal" people try and learn a little about other modes of thought, instead of demanding that "incorrect" thought be pushed away. Conformity has always been the major opponent of various civil rights issues in the past; this is probably an angle that many people have not considered before, though.
...
On an unrelated note, I also highly recommend the movie PRIMER to anyone who hasn't seen it yet. (torrent) It won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2004, on a budget of only $7000. Easily the most accurate depiction of the engineering discovery/creation process put to film yet.
I suggest taking notes on a 2nd viewing - it will take at least that much effort to follow the plot. From the wiki: "Anybody who claims they fully understand what's going on in Primer after seeing it just once is either a savant or a liar." (note - don't read the wiki. Even the table of contents is a huge spoiler) A few physics refresher courses on Feynman Diagrams may help with the graph you'll need to draw to fully understand the movie...