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>Gee, sounds like a lot of language; merely superimposing itself over a phenomenon, allowing us to feel comfortable.
Also allowing us to communicate, at least so it seems to my simple mind. A world without language of some sort would, it seems to me, be a very quiet, lonely place. You're welcome to it, by.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Bellyouth:
Your anecdote brought a little tear to my eye...
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Sjm, I'm just pointing out that we can't even decide what constitutes the simplest of things nevermind the atom and all those theoretical subparticles.
> be a very quiet, lonely place.
And the small mouth movements of monkey bodies are so heavenly divine? I dunno. There are certain octopi (hey Jazz) that change colour according to what they are feeling. They become their linguistic intent instead of parsing thought through a socially sanctioned dictionary. They can become what they think! I think this is where we - in the digital age -could/should be heading.
English is being spread so thin it is fast becoming a straitjacket holding humanity back. If Whorf was right, and language is fundamentally who we are then we are getting nowhere fast. For as English spreads it must homogenize thought somewhat, bending things to its will - this is kind of the concept of 'memes'. English therefore is a neurosis inducing linguistic disease that will help eradicate language as we know it, setting the imagination free again.
Reset the preset!
[running]
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addict
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Thanks for the input on 'tron', Faldage BelY, I find the reference to English being meme-like, intriguing. You are indeed right and it is because of this very same quality that it or any language enhances creativity and consequent multiplanar expansion (I believe your last sentence endorses this). What I fail to comprehend, is how that can possibly be a straitjacket. Are you trying to say that it is crowding out other such with its reach, and in the process also promoting programmed and standardised patterns of learned thought? The former appears to be a tragic but expected fall-out of consolidated 'empirification' of the world. The latter although partly true, however merits consideration that, language despite its defining boundaries and limits, provides the medium for imagination, reasoning and questioning. It is thus continuously, both an acquisitive and creative process that results ultimately in the constant modification of language itself. Almost like, language - meme1 - homogeneous thought - poor copying fidelity - altered meme - altered thought - altered language - meme1a ------and so on. So, in the final analysis, it assimilates change quite rapidly and should therefore promote significant heterogeneity. Surely, the octopi also must have a colour coded dictionary sanctioned by their own memes and genes! 
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BY, your post mentioned "language" - it did not specify spoken language. That's why in my reply I spoke of a world without language "of some sort". For all the limitations of language, it seems to me to be very necessary if I am to be other than an island. Surely any form of structured communication, verbal, visual, or otherwise, is language?
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Carpal Tunnel
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...Our sense of pride and power is...Yeah, well, speak for yourself!!!  -------------------- English therefore is a neurosis inducing linguistic disease that will help eradicate language as we know it...At least your consistent with being the eternal opt omist I've come to know you as... ... and, English is (at the same time) being a language that slows progress down and holds the tension (like a stretched rubber band) as specific politics get assigned to it *arbitrarily. sjm - My above post goes directly toward perceptions of language and specific posturings involved.
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