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> Medicine, psychology, and neuroscience all have different definitions of this stuff. Well, maybe, but is it conventional usage in any of those fields to call

> Medicine, psychology, and neuroscience all have different definitions of this stuff. Well, maybe, but is it conventional usage in any of those fields to call the cognitive processes involved in producing and understanding linguistic communication low-level? Regardless, my ranking it high-level is not just my private usage, as you claimed. In fact, I would guess that it is a more conventional ranking than the one that seems to be implied by your method. > How do you teach a computer what cells are in the abstract? Well, precisely, it's at a higher level of abstraction than just picking out the word (I am pretty sure that's a conventional usage of 'higher'.) >There is also some high level language decoding where people extract meaning from poetry, etc. Poetry may be particularly obtuse, but that does not make all other meaning-extraction low-level. A lot of it, IMHO, belongs in that 'etc.' PS to your PS: There are also concentration-demanding motor skills. And the point about your ranking method is that it seems to put thinking about a math problem at the same level as talking with someone, which you are claiming is low-level.

Retric 7y ago
> thinking about a math problem at the same level as talking with someone Plenty of people can hold a simple conversation while doing differential equations. As the conversation’s complexity increases that stops being the case. There is clearly a difference when talking to a distracted person. But, decoding “Do you want a soda?” and responding appropriately seems to require little if any attention. Neuroscience gives support of this in terms of what parts of the brain are involved in different aspects of language.
- mannykannot 7y ago
  I am interested as to whether you consider doing differential equations a simple task, here? Presumably so, as your method puts it on a par with simple conversations.
  - Retric 7y ago
    No, you can’t do multiple high level tasks at the same time. Low level automatic tasks like breathing and balance fine to do at the same time. Being able to do differential equations and simple conversations but not complex conversations means simple conversations are lower level. Thus, it’s not language that makes complex conversations a high level task.
    - mannykannot 7y ago
      You seem to be missing the point here - your method is symmetrical, and it would be begging the question to break the symmetry the way you want it to go. One can do simple math (calculus, even) while having a complicated conversation -- and if you cannot, it could be because complicated conversations are so intellectually demanding that you can't even do simple math concurrently. And your argument is also beside the point, now that you have restricted it to simple conversations.
      - Retric 7y ago
        The argument is not limited to math. You also can’t learn to play the violin while holding a deep unrelated conversation. This extends to a huge range of activities. But, you don’t lose language skills during these activities. Thus it’s (A, B, C, ..., or Z) and language. Thus language is clearly the lesser activity. PS: People can often count or do memorized addition etc, but doing complex math tasks is off the table. It’s odd that some things even prevent you from recognizing symbols.
        mannykannot 7y ago
        You need to show that, unlike the math case, it does not work the opposite way in each case. What a coincidence it is that out of all A..Z , you should have picked math, the one that doesn't work, as your first example!
        Retric 7y ago
        > The one that does not work How so? You can recall facts not do math. Try adding say 2437 + 5627 while learning to juggle. It’s fine if you have already learned to juggle or have memorized the answer. But not if you are both doing the computation and learning to juggle at the same time. On the other hand people will hold a simple conversation while practicing juggling.

Retric 7y ago

> thinking about a math problem at the same level as talking with someone Plenty of people can hold a simple conversation while doing differential equations. As the conversation’s complexity increases that stops being the case. There is clearly a difference when talking to a distracted person. But, decoding “Do you want a soda?” and responding appropriately seems to require little if any attention. Neuroscience gives support of this in terms of what parts of the brain are involved in different aspects of language.

mannykannot 7y ago
I am interested as to whether you consider doing differential equations a simple task, here? Presumably so, as your method puts it on a par with simple conversations.
- Retric 7y ago
  No, you can’t do multiple high level tasks at the same time. Low level automatic tasks like breathing and balance fine to do at the same time. Being able to do differential equations and simple conversations but not complex conversations means simple conversations are lower level. Thus, it’s not language that makes complex conversations a high level task.
  - mannykannot 7y ago
    You seem to be missing the point here - your method is symmetrical, and it would be begging the question to break the symmetry the way you want it to go. One can do simple math (calculus, even) while having a complicated conversation -- and if you cannot, it could be because complicated conversations are so intellectually demanding that you can't even do simple math concurrently. And your argument is also beside the point, now that you have restricted it to simple conversations.
    - Retric 7y ago
      The argument is not limited to math. You also can’t learn to play the violin while holding a deep unrelated conversation. This extends to a huge range of activities. But, you don’t lose language skills during these activities. Thus it’s (A, B, C, ..., or Z) and language. Thus language is clearly the lesser activity. PS: People can often count or do memorized addition etc, but doing complex math tasks is off the table. It’s odd that some things even prevent you from recognizing symbols.
      - mannykannot 7y ago
        You need to show that, unlike the math case, it does not work the opposite way in each case. What a coincidence it is that out of all A..Z , you should have picked math, the one that doesn't work, as your first example!
        Retric 7y ago
        > The one that does not work How so? You can recall facts not do math. Try adding say 2437 + 5627 while learning to juggle. It’s fine if you have already learned to juggle or have memorized the answer. But not if you are both doing the computation and learning to juggle at the same time. On the other hand people will hold a simple conversation while practicing juggling.