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Apparently there are some people who do not think at all using language which is extremely bizarre to me. Also makes me wonder what mind chatter for a dog looks

Apparently there are some people who do not think at all using language which is extremely bizarre to me. Also makes me wonder what mind chatter for a dog looks like. In terms of personal introspection I find it really interesting how ones "mind chatter" shifts when one is super tired or out of it or similar.

pmoriarty 5y ago
"Apparently there are some people who do not think at all using language" Oliver Sacks wrote a great book about this: Seeing Voices[1] In it he writes about all sorts of people who either never learned language or learned it late in life, and about what that transformation from a non-linguistic world to a linguistic world is like. Highly recommended. [1] - https://www.amazon.com/Seeing-Voices-Oliver-Sacks/dp/0375704078 https://www.amazon.com/Seeing-Voices-Oliver-Sacks/dp/0375704...
KMag 5y ago
It would be very high overhead if different brain regions used an encoded form of spoken language as the communication protocol. For most of us, most of the time, the introspective portions of the brain responsible for consciousness may be re-interpreting the messages they observe as something language-like, but these portions of the brain almost certainly don't duplicate all of the language processing wiring necessary for the language centers of the brain to produce and interpret language. In short, I suspect that the "language" of thought is likely mostly a post-hoc rationalization/interpretation performed by some parts of the brain. Learning to read Chinese, I've many times had the experience of recognizing and understanding a character, but momentarily being unable to remember either the corresponding English or Mandarin words. (This usually happens when studying written Chinese tired after a long day of work.) I'm biased, but I think even more interesting than the inner voice of dogs would be the inner voice of infants and toddlers. My young son is too young to speak or walk, or even appear to understand even one word. (Though, it's hard to tell; maybe he understands a handful of words.) Yet, he's clearly very curious about the world and seems to understand social interactions.
juanani 5y ago

pmoriarty 5y ago

"Apparently there are some people who do not think at all using language" Oliver Sacks wrote a great book about this: Seeing Voices[1] In it he writes about all sorts of people who either never learned language or learned it late in life, and about what that transformation from a non-linguistic world to a linguistic world is like. Highly recommended. [1] - https://www.amazon.com/Seeing-Voices-Oliver-Sacks/dp/0375704078 https://www.amazon.com/Seeing-Voices-Oliver-Sacks/dp/0375704...

KMag 5y ago

It would be very high overhead if different brain regions used an encoded form of spoken language as the communication protocol. For most of us, most of the time, the introspective portions of the brain responsible for consciousness may be re-interpreting the messages they observe as something language-like, but these portions of the brain almost certainly don't duplicate all of the language processing wiring necessary for the language centers of the brain to produce and interpret language. In short, I suspect that the "language" of thought is likely mostly a post-hoc rationalization/interpretation performed by some parts of the brain. Learning to read Chinese, I've many times had the experience of recognizing and understanding a character, but momentarily being unable to remember either the corresponding English or Mandarin words. (This usually happens when studying written Chinese tired after a long day of work.) I'm biased, but I think even more interesting than the inner voice of dogs would be the inner voice of infants and toddlers. My young son is too young to speak or walk, or even appear to understand even one word. (Though, it's hard to tell; maybe he understands a handful of words.) Yet, he's clearly very curious about the world and seems to understand social interactions.

juanani 5y ago