(no subject)
Sometimes despite our best efforts at communication, we fail to transmit more signal than noise. Our data get lost. Our ideas don't bridge the gap between minds. The cool part is that, as a species, our least communicative relatives died out so that we have evolved what we think of as a pretty sophisticated set of signals for moving information. We've managed to retain most of the other modes of communication we find in other species. (There's a little joke in that because we have to use our sense organs to discover the communication methods of other animals. Fortunately, we can overcome this hurdle to discover as yet unperceived methods of communication through focused application of technology.) Granted, my nose isn't as keen as the next species', but I still pick up a pheromone or two. My eyes aren't as sharp as the next species', but I can tell which bugs and plants are very poisonous.
To me, the funny part about humans is that we communicate with all of our senses all the time. A scent of perfume, a certain gesture, a sound uttered in just the right way and at just the right time, a caress on the back of the ear or a hand through the hair, and even a meal cooked just so can carry deep and intricate meaning. Provided we don't fall into apophenia, our capacity for pattern recognition can give us so much power over information that we don't always know what to do with it all. What good does it do me to recognize the difference between an aria and recitative? Very little, except that it may have given me pleasure to know it at one time. Yet, I keep those patterns anyway. They enrich my life in a way that goes beyond evolutionary necessity. Beyond that, these patterns enable me to enrich the lives of those around me.
This kind of pattern recognition leads to communication that not only lengthens life, but also heightens everyone's enjoyment of life. Without these capacities, technology as we know it would be impossible. Transportation, culture, society, and human relationships as we know them would be fantasies of fantasies. If we were to suddenly lose these capacities, the human world would fall to chaos. People would die. Stories would be lost. Madness would seep into the most dearly held parts of our collective psyche. It would be a bad deal.
I guess all I'm really saying is that, when you're driving east on I-44, especially when I'm trying to get to work in a timely manner, use your goddamned turn signal. Your life, culture, and the very foundations of our society depend on it. Jackass.
I wanna know whose idea it was to have carrots
To me, the funny part about humans is that we communicate with all of our senses all the time. A scent of perfume, a certain gesture, a sound uttered in just the right way and at just the right time, a caress on the back of the ear or a hand through the hair, and even a meal cooked just so can carry deep and intricate meaning. Provided we don't fall into apophenia, our capacity for pattern recognition can give us so much power over information that we don't always know what to do with it all. What good does it do me to recognize the difference between an aria and recitative? Very little, except that it may have given me pleasure to know it at one time. Yet, I keep those patterns anyway. They enrich my life in a way that goes beyond evolutionary necessity. Beyond that, these patterns enable me to enrich the lives of those around me.
This kind of pattern recognition leads to communication that not only lengthens life, but also heightens everyone's enjoyment of life. Without these capacities, technology as we know it would be impossible. Transportation, culture, society, and human relationships as we know them would be fantasies of fantasies. If we were to suddenly lose these capacities, the human world would fall to chaos. People would die. Stories would be lost. Madness would seep into the most dearly held parts of our collective psyche. It would be a bad deal.
I guess all I'm really saying is that, when you're driving east on I-44, especially when I'm trying to get to work in a timely manner, use your goddamned turn signal. Your life, culture, and the very foundations of our society depend on it. Jackass.
I wanna know whose idea it was to have carrots