Michael Brady quotes someone (not me): > one person's pre-existing notion must be matched by another person's > > very, very similar notion before there can be communication. > Michael then asks: > > Just by the way: how does either person know whether the other > person's notion "matches" their own? > My position is that they can never perfectly "match", but they can come serviceably close, and we can often infer from the other persons' words and actions that we've got enough "across". If I say, "Paul Newman died," and the other person says, "Oh, I loved him in 'Hud'!" I conclude they "got" the core notion I had in mind, even though I can be sure they couldn't have picked up all the notion coursing through my mind when I uttered my short sentence. If I say, "Pass the potatoes, please," and someone passes the potatoes, I can reasonably infer the most important part of my notion was conveyed.
The more "abstract" the notion, the less perfectly is it likely to be conveyed. Earlier today I posted a message aimed at conveying that when Frances and William use the word 'signs' I'm sure that what arises in mind differs from what was in theirs, and I can say that confidently while having very little clear notion of what their notions indeed are. Michael goes on: > No matter what transpires in the > communications, there's the unavoidable fact that my notion stays > within my mind and so does yours. The only thing that bridges the two > is the form of the communication--words, pictures, gestures, etc. > For him to "get" the notion it does not mean I no longer have it. There are quoted aphorisms galore about such things as information and "love" that we can "give" every day and still have them ourselves. Responding to Michael's query, Luc writes: "I believe mirror neurons "extend" the mind to allow the communication you are referring to." I think I may "get" Luc's core notion, and it doesn't seem unreasonable to me. I think he's saying that when we speak, the other guy hears "our sound", it excites nerve ending in our ears, they excitations get processed, and notion arises in his mind. Simultaneously the nerve's action of hearing and processing is affecting neurons in our brain, and the neurons are changed. Some of us will remember for the rest of our lives certain lines that were uttered to us -- i.e. the neuronal rearrangements are effectively permanent. It's interesting to wonder to what extent the minute physical structure of a neuronal arrangement occasioned in my head by hearing that Newman is dead is replicated by the "Paul Newman is Dead" neuronal rearrangement in other people's heads. Exact "mirrors" I'm sure they won't be, but I wonder if they'll ever be discerned to recognizably close. We do know that neuronal activity takes place in the same part of the head for grossly similar notion -- e.g. vision. But the exact structure of it is still unknown to us. ************** New MapQuest Local shows what's happening at your destination. Dining, Movies, Events, News & more. Try it out! (http://local.mapquest.com/?ncid=emlcntnew00000001)
