On Tue, Apr 15, 2014 at 6:44 PM, meekerdb <meeke...@verizon.net> wrote:
> On 4/15/2014 4:38 AM, Telmo Menezes wrote: > > An interesting related hypothesis is that language originated >> from synesthesia caused by psychadelics. >> >> Telmo. >> >> >> I had heard that Telmo. Do you have a reference, a link? >> > > Unfortunately not. I think I heard in a talk. Might be related to > McKenna's "stoned ape" theory, but I can't find anything... > > > That seems very far-fetched considering that animals already exhibit > rudimentary language and that its selective advantage for a tool making > social animal is huge. > I agree that the idea that language was bootstrapped by psychadelics is far-fetched. I see it as a fun hypothesis more than anything else, for the reasons you mention. > I don't see how synesthesia could do anything but confound and confuse > the development of language. > Maybe so for the development of direct symbols, but I can imagine it playing a role in the emergence of more abstract ideas. Even in modern times we can see this at work, to a degree. Many of the cultural ideas that originated in the 60s, and that still reverberate today, were "unearthed" by using LSD, cannabis, etc. I find the effects of psychoactive substances particularly interesting for AI research, because they show a profound way in which our brains differ from the current model of computation. Computer programs typically crash if we mess with their computational substrate. We flood the brain with an inhibitor for a certain type of receptor or with the analogue of some transmitter and it doesn't collapse. It does all kinds of interesting things, some good and some bad. Sometimes you get "the dark side of the moon" -- if musical talent is already present, of course :) Telmo. > > Brent > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
