You have no language

[Tramps]

You're a fully grown adult but you have no sense of language. You can't form sentences or understand the meaning of any sort of words that are said to you. They're merely sounds.

Now, if you were this person, how do you formulate thought? When most people think, they talk to themselves in their heads to rationalise and reason. If a person doesn't have this ability, can they still rationalise and reason? How does one think without a language?

Many people believe that the language is the fundamental attribute that separates humans from animals. Animals quite simply do not have a language. Some people may argue that animals do have a language that is unheard of by unhumans but we believe that they lack the mental capacity to form language and can only communicate through basic commands.

Without language, would you be no better than an animal? Would you cease to qualify as a person or is being a person purely a case of biological matter?

[Aryk]

Just get a dog to talk for you.

[Gedveikur]

no, when you think you do not talk to yourself, sure sometimes you talk to yourself in your head. Thinking is different, I think it sort of combines images and emotions or something but I don't know how it works. All I do know is that you don't talk to yourself when thinking,

[DrClay]

pigeons must say something like this

"Oh hey check out that Camero, must be expensive... Watch me take a shit on it"

[WeirdJamFace]

Try to make topics that are more view/reply ratio friendly.
Most NGers don't have the mental capacity to talk about these kind of things.

Including me.

[OrbitalDebris]

You cant argue obtuce memetic paradimes in such black and white, simple terms.

[megakill]

i suppose in a sense you'd be an animal yourself. you'd just do whatever your bodys natural instincts tell you too.

but then you have to pose the question that its our uncanny ability to learn and adapt that has lead to our possition in this world, so would it still be possible to learn a language?

[ThoseSneakyFrench]

There was a situation like this where a girl dubbed Genie was locked in her room from birth until she was 13. Because she missed out on the window where you learn language, she can never be taught to communicate. She currently lives in an assisted living facility because she's not capable of comprehending speech.

Wish I had a link.

[GiantDouche]

I was wondering this yesterday. It's pretty confusing.

[Tramps]

At 10/11/09 06:58 PM, Gedveikur wrote: no, when you think you do not talk to yourself, sure sometimes you talk to yourself in your head. Thinking is different, I think it sort of combines images and emotions or something but I don't know how it works. All I do know is that you don't talk to yourself when thinking,

Try to break down language. Language is a mixture of sounds and words. Words are a form of symbols. If you're trying to figure out how to spell a word, you imagine the symbols in your head and combine them. When you try to solve a problem, most people have to go through it in their heads which involves them talking aloud or in their head. Whether or not you're aware, your language is what strings together two images in your head.

If a dog has a choice of shitting on a carpet or outside, it knows to shit outside because the last time it shit inside it got punished. That is through recollection and the knowledge of punishment. It has no language to know why it gets punished, it just knows not to do it because it the dog will end up worse off. If a human was approached with this kind of situation, it has to think what two things it has to decide between and think what the consequences may be. To do that, it has to string together a 'why' and outweigh the consequences, but how do you compare two outcomes. It's like being given two images. Only through language can you find a connection.

At 10/11/09 06:59 PM, WeirdJamFace wrote: Try to make topics that are more view/reply ratio friendly.
Most NGers don't have the mental capacity to talk about these kind of things.

Including me.

Don't tell me how to BBS, I've been doing it a lot longer, kid.

[tweekee]

I could explain some of this, but that just leads to more questions, and I don't want to type that much. You think in images and sometimes words. You may picture a girl with big boobs in your mind, then think the words she's hot. Your words mean something to you, even if no one else knows what you're saying. You are considered a person by most peoples standards if you are of the human race. Though you can't speak a language used by a group of humans, it can still mean something in your mind. Nobody else will know what the fuck you're saying though.

[UberCream]

You can associate actions with memories instead of words, like if you are hungry, you can think of yourself eating food, instead of thinking, "Hey, I want some funions."

[misterchees0]

Dude, no language = No computer.

We're all fucked

[megakill]

At 10/11/09 07:05 PM, Tramps wrote:

At 10/11/09 06:58 PM, Gedveikur wrote: no, when you think you do not talk to yourself, sure sometimes you talk to yourself in your head. Thinking is different, I think it sort of combines images and emotions or something but I don't know how it works. All I do know is that you don't talk to yourself when thinking,

Try to break down language. Language is a mixture of sounds and words. Words are a form of symbols. If you're trying to figure out how to spell a word, you imagine the symbols in your head and combine them. When you try to solve a problem, most people have to go through it in their heads which involves them talking aloud or in their head. Whether or not you're aware, your language is what strings together two images in your head.

If a dog has a choice of shitting on a carpet or outside, it knows to shit outside because the last time it shit inside it got punished. That is through recollection and the knowledge of punishment. It has no language to know why it gets punished, it just knows not to do it because it the dog will end up worse off. If a human was approached with this kind of situation, it has to think what two things it has to decide between and think what the consequences may be. To do that, it has to string together a 'why' and outweigh the consequences, but how do you compare two outcomes. It's like being given two images. Only through language can you find a connection.

At 10/11/09 06:59 PM, WeirdJamFace wrote: Try to make topics that are more view/reply ratio friendly.
Most NGers don't have the mental capacity to talk about these kind of things.

Including me.

Don't tell me how to BBS, I've been doing it a lot longer, kid.

you've got a fair point there. i suppose your right in saying that we have to use our language to make even the most basic of desicions, but again, what about your ability to learn? you dont have a language when your born, and yet you learn it anyway, because we have the mental capacity requiered to do such things. so even if you were a fully grown adult, does that still rule out the chance of picking a language up through interaction with other people? when you think about it, if you dont have a language, you'd be no better equiped for life than a new born baby.

and good job telling wierdjamface kid where to go. i havent seen an intelligant topic in a while

[6r0undZ3r0]

At 10/11/09 06:58 PM, DrClay wrote: pigeons must say something like this

"Oh hey check out that Camero, must be expensive... Watch me take a shit on it"

Fucking win, this has got to be true.