here is what humans have over other animals:
. our language uses symbols that can entirely describe
our understanding of the world;
and our understanding of the world is so vast
that we can survive without adapting our genome
by engineering environmental adaptations.
. also,
language in its written form is
more important than speech (the verbal form);
because it represents a form of automation of our memory;
giving us not only communication
but a virtually infinite memory size.
. the first reliable computations involved
writing the steps of an algorithm
so that we could automate the part of our mind
that remembered each step and their ordering.
20.7.28:
. Noam Chomsky, the legendary linguist,
said the reason to study Linguistics was that
"language is almost the defining characteristic of human beings;
... its properties have no analog in the animal world.
... and it's the core of our creative capacity;"
if you wanted to " 'know thyself' then this is the place to look."
. without thinking of his entire meaning,
it seemed he was saying animals don't have language.
I remember hearing that the bees read a dance
to understand from another bee
about the locations and amounts of food found.
. I assume many other social animals communicate
to support group cohesion and coordination.
7.30..31:
. prof.Chomsky, for good reason,
referred to human intelligence and language
as if they are the same thing,
for great ideas come and go,
and only by coding them into language
can we remember and develop ideas;
and only by sharing ideas can you combine
the efforts of several minds on one idea.
. it has been said that your language
helps you shape your thoughts,
and conversely,
a weak language with false assumptions
limits your thoughts.
. but the sufficiently intelligent humans
will evolve their language to fit their ideas;
also, given a sufficiently human intelligence,
one is much more adaptive than other animals
even without a language.
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