> Language has special properties that lead to the emergence of abilities previously only possible for humans. Citation needed. > Humans for example like to r

> Language has special properties that lead to the emergence of abilities previously only possible for humans. Citation needed. > Humans for example like to read fiction. It's all pretend, but enjoyable, maybe also instructive. We can simulate other people and their actions, we can infer their emotional states and motives. Humans like to read fiction that is extremely rooted in our actual experience of the world. We don't read scifi about 5-dimensional universes with no protagonist that mostly behaves like people. Even on this very blog you'll find excellent articles on why Rings of Powers is bad because it's not believable, and why Lord of the Rings is great because it is (and rooted in much historical knowledge). > Language has the ability to create things like chatGPT, language can create modern capable humans from just babies. No? Babies grow into adults after years of experiencing the real world at every instant, as well as the social world. Language starts as a tool to express basic concepts that are very much grounded in the real world, and abstraction comes years later. It's not language that makes babies into adults!