The Power of Language: Our Built-in Internet

The Old Deal--A Computer in Every Garage ∙ ∙ ∙ ∙ Roosevelt's "New Deal" promised a car in every garage. Not everyone yet has a car, but everyone does own a computer, even if they don't! Computermania is a common problem among advanced user's ! Nature long ago provided each human with the ultimate information processor--the brain. The "hat-trick" of course is to combine human brains like we do computers. I see three possible ways of doing this, and they range from pure fiction to solid reality. They are as follows THE SPOCK TECHNIQUE: A real hands-on experience ! o o Spock, from Star Trek, had the advantage of being able to place his fingers around someone's face or neck and thereby extract the knowledge they posses--the old Vulcan hand-in-the-face trick. Imagine how that could shorten a semester's class. I've had a few students actually try it, but it seems to do nothing but leave finger prints and bruises. The students do seem to feel better if nothing else. However, I do not advocate this mode of communication, at least for this century. Let's look at something else. MENTAL TELEPATHY: Mind over matter? o o o o Some amazing feats have been performed in the name of parapsychology. One current, if not scientifically questionable, account involves communication with animals (from bugs to camels)-For example, see the telepathic skills taught by Pennelope and others (in the notes). I have not had much success, however, with this in my lectures. It's true, I have not taken classes in telepathy; and there were no camels in the my classes. At any rate, mental telepathy is not a viable option for most of us as a means of joining central nervous systems. But wait ! Don't panic. There is one viable option that works very well and is relatively inexpensive, in that it doesn't require any formal instruction or costly classes or equipment. LANGUAGE: A Bridge Between Computers ! o o Fortunately, nature has provided each human, not only with a computer but also with an internet system! That system is called LANGUAGE...and, although it took the humans a few million years to discover it, once they did, it became the bridge they needed to join their central nervous systems...with their family members, neighbors, countrymen and the people of the world. But even more profound, as visual (written) language emerged, it enabled humans to join their systems...with the geniuses of the past. Hence, like Spock's hand-in-the-face trick, knowledge can be accrued from past generations. Equally important, is the bridge language provides to our inner self! A bridge to our own thoughts! o ∙ We spend more time talking to ourselves than to anyone else. We plan our day, remember our past, learn our culture, control our behavior, and build our self concept via the bridge of language. How does each human acquire this bridge ? We don't need a crystal ball to count the ways! We'll use the gift of language.