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In that case, what word is left for what a human does in their brain that a plant can't?

ta1234567890 6y ago
Why does there need to be a specific word to describe that? You can just say humans and plants think in different ways, or through different mechanisms.
- yetihehe 6y ago
  > Why does there need to be a specific word to describe that? Communication efficiency. I'd like to have one short term for this so that I don't need to make elaborate differentiations every time I need to use it.
  - op03 6y ago
    "Our language is an imperfect instrument created by ancient and ignorant men. It is an animistic language that invites us to talk about stability and constants, about similarities and normal and kinds, about magical transformations, quick cures, simple problems, and final solutions. Yet the world we try to symbolize with this language is a world of process, change, differences, dimensions, functions, relationships, growths, interactions, developing, learning, coping, complexity. And the mismatch of our ever-changing world and our relatively static language forms is part of our problem." - Wendell Johnson (Semanticist) Good example of ppl who make up new words to "simplify" things as their world gets more and more complex every year are Lawyers and Accountants. But even so sometimes you end up requiring buildings full of them to decipher what one sentence they came up with last year actually means this year. The problem is not the Lawyer or the Accountant but Human Language itself.
deleted 6y ago
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carapace 6y ago
Plants are chemical-binding, animals are space-binding, humans are time-binding. Korzybski, "Manhood of Humanity" http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25457/25457-pdf.pdf http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25457/25457-pdf.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Korzybski https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Korzybski IIRC, he meant that plant life binds and manipulates chemicals in the immediate environment; animals move matter over the surface of the earth (at a much higher rate than plants); humans shift information through time via culture (and later writing, et. al.)
joubert 6y ago
I agree with your insinuation that there is utility in having a language for describing the brain processes or their functions in humans that is different from the other living beings. One way that I like to think about it is that there's a spectrum of "sophistication". Even within the human population, there's gradation: not everyone is great at critical thinking, forecasting, imagining, reasoning, meta cognition, etc. When I look to the stars, I wonder what levels exist above the human mind. Looking "downward", are there "thinking processes" that we could assimilate through technology into our own minds?
he_is_legend 6y ago
Philosophy

Why does there need to be a specific word to describe that? You can just say humans and plants think in different ways, or through different mechanisms.

yetihehe 6y ago
> Why does there need to be a specific word to describe that? Communication efficiency. I'd like to have one short term for this so that I don't need to make elaborate differentiations every time I need to use it.
- op03 6y ago
  "Our language is an imperfect instrument created by ancient and ignorant men. It is an animistic language that invites us to talk about stability and constants, about similarities and normal and kinds, about magical transformations, quick cures, simple problems, and final solutions. Yet the world we try to symbolize with this language is a world of process, change, differences, dimensions, functions, relationships, growths, interactions, developing, learning, coping, complexity. And the mismatch of our ever-changing world and our relatively static language forms is part of our problem." - Wendell Johnson (Semanticist) Good example of ppl who make up new words to "simplify" things as their world gets more and more complex every year are Lawyers and Accountants. But even so sometimes you end up requiring buildings full of them to decipher what one sentence they came up with last year actually means this year. The problem is not the Lawyer or the Accountant but Human Language itself.

deleted 6y ago

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carapace 6y ago

Plants are chemical-binding, animals are space-binding, humans are time-binding. Korzybski, "Manhood of Humanity" http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25457/25457-pdf.pdf http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25457/25457-pdf.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Korzybski https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Korzybski IIRC, he meant that plant life binds and manipulates chemicals in the immediate environment; animals move matter over the surface of the earth (at a much higher rate than plants); humans shift information through time via culture (and later writing, et. al.)

joubert 6y ago

I agree with your insinuation that there is utility in having a language for describing the brain processes or their functions in humans that is different from the other living beings. One way that I like to think about it is that there's a spectrum of "sophistication". Even within the human population, there's gradation: not everyone is great at critical thinking, forecasting, imagining, reasoning, meta cognition, etc. When I look to the stars, I wonder what levels exist above the human mind. Looking "downward", are there "thinking processes" that we could assimilate through technology into our own minds?

he_is_legend 6y ago

Philosophy