Why is Understanding Evolution important?

You are not logged in. [Log In] Wordsmith.org Forums Miscellany Why is Understanding Evolution important?

Print Thread

Page 4 of 11

…

#212190 - 08/17/13 04:45 PM Re: Why is Understanding Evolution important? [Re: Buffalo Shrdlu]
Joined: Jun 2010 Posts: 1,554 jenny jenny veteran
jenny jenny veteran Joined: Jun 2010 Posts: 1,554 Lower Aberdeen, Mississippi	Originally Posted By: Buffalo Shrdlu > usually when we choose a word we choose to have it understood by whomever it is we are to speak, otherwise, why speak? Oh, I think there are a lot of people who speak only to hear themselves. Really? Or does the Buffalo speak only for himself? Still wondering... where do you, Shrdlu, keep the words you use when you are not using them? And in what form?

#212192 - 08/17/13 05:37 PM Re: Why is Understanding Evolution important? [Re: jenny jenny]
Joined: Jun 2002 Posts: 7,210 Buffalo Shrdlu Carpal Tunnel
Buffalo Shrdlu Carpal Tunnel Joined: Jun 2002 Posts: 7,210 Vermont	In my sock drawer. formerly known as etaoin...

#212195 - 08/18/13 02:38 AM Re: Why is Understanding Evolution important? [Re: Buffalo Shrdlu]
Joined: Jun 2010 Posts: 1,554 jenny jenny veteran
jenny jenny veteran Joined: Jun 2010 Posts: 1,554 Lower Aberdeen, Mississippi	Thanks, Buffalo. Now tsuwm, Faldage, BranShea, and anyone else who would like to add something to this discussion, I ask: If the words you see here can be physically stored in your computer, are not the words you use when speaking physically stored in your brain?

#212196 - 08/18/13 03:06 AM Re: Why is Understanding Evolution important? [Re: jenny jenny]
Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 Faldage Carpal Tunnel
Faldage Carpal Tunnel Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803	We don't understand this sort of thing very well, but there would appear to be some sort of storage in the brain. To say that this means there is some concrete thing which we can, if only metaphorically, point to and say "this is the word" is stretching the meaning of things a little too much for me to buy into it.

#212199 - 08/18/13 08:32 AM Re: Why is Understanding Evolution important? [Re: jenny jenny]
Joined: May 2010 Posts: 959 Tromboniator old hand
Tromboniator old hand Joined: May 2010 Posts: 959 Alaska	Yeah, what Faldage says. I don't think of words as being physically stored in my computer or my brain. What are the dimensions of a word, what's its mass? Does my computer/brain get heavier with each new word I store? Is "it" smaller, lighter than "Rumpelstiltskin"? How tiny must the tweezers be to pluck it out? What's its chemical composition, its reactivity? Solid, liquid, or gas? What color? Nope, I can't buy it, either.

#212201 - 08/19/13 02:33 AM Re: Why is Understanding Evolution important? [Re: Tromboniator]
Joined: Jun 2010 Posts: 1,554 jenny jenny veteran
jenny jenny veteran Joined: Jun 2010 Posts: 1,554 Lower Aberdeen, Mississippi	Hallelujah! A happy turn of events. Tromboniator and Faldage admit that our brains store information. Their only stipulation is that the information stored must be made of... nothing. How strange, but since Trombo and Faldo are (for-the-most-part) open-minded the paragraph below should transfigure their "inert nothing" into a more logical "dynamic something". posting interrupted will add by edit in a minute. [This post to be continued below Faldage's elaboration below.]

#212202 - 08/19/13 09:44 AM Re: Why is Understanding Evolution important? [Re: jenny jenny]
Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 Faldage Carpal Tunnel
Faldage Carpal Tunnel Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803	I didn't say that that the information stored must be made of... nothing. I said we don't understand how it is stored.* Besides, any storage of words is no more intrinsically linked to the Reality, insofar as there is a Reality behind the words, of what those words mean than is the vibrations in the air that we perceive when we hear those words. *Or at least that is what I intended to say. If I didn't do a very good job of it the fault is all mine.

#212211 - 08/20/13 05:21 AM Re: Why is Understanding Evolution important? [Re: Faldage]
Joined: Jun 2010 Posts: 1,554 jenny jenny veteran
jenny jenny veteran Joined: Jun 2010 Posts: 1,554 Lower Aberdeen, Mississippi	Faldage. There is no fault in thinking. And, other than high crimes, there is no fault in living except being rude which you are not. My construction of the nature of things stems from a fifty year observation of this world without my cock in the fight. Let me summerize: I think that our sensory system automatically imputs (filters) selective data from the external world into the data storage system required by the brain.

#212213 - 08/20/13 10:48 AM Re: Why is Understanding Evolution important? [Re: jenny jenny]
Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 Faldage Carpal Tunnel
Faldage Carpal Tunnel Joined: Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803	Yup. Hence my differentiation between Reality and reality.

#212215 - 08/20/13 11:02 AM Re: Why is Understanding Evolution important? [Re: jenny jenny]
Joined: May 2010 Posts: 959 Tromboniator old hand
Tromboniator old hand Joined: May 2010 Posts: 959 Alaska	jenny jenny, jenny jenny, jenny jenny, neither of us stipulated anything (or both of us stipulated nothing) about information storage being of "nothing," and certainly not of "inert nothing." Electrochemical, most likely, I suppose, but not physical like putting old lamps into a storage unit down the street, and the one Aunt Lucy broke is the third on the left. I don't "admit" that the brain stores information, I wholeheartedly embrace the concept, but I have trouble with the idea that each word is some discrete brick or package, which is the image I get when you talk about physical storage. Words have meanings and spellings (right or wrong) attached to them when we retrieve them, emotional baggage, memories, associations inextricably connected to other words, experiences, images. It may be that "wherewithal," "girn," and "rapid" all have very specific coordinates in my brain, but I doubt that it's that simple. I rather think that's a long version of what Faldage was saying a post or two back, but he is of course welcome to contradict me. Not my place (nor is there need) to put words into his mouth.

Page 4 of 11

…

Moderated by Jackie

Forum Statistics

Forums16

Topics13,881

Posts224,661

Members9,048

Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011

Newest Members


	Wordsmith Talk		About Us \| What's New \| Search \| Site Map \| Contact Us

Wordsmith Talk