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> But communication is not only, or even primarily, about information. It is about emotion, about establishing our presence and developing or reinforcing a conn
by EForEndeavour 2y ago
> But communication is not only, or even primarily, about information. It is about emotion, about establishing our presence and developing or reinforcing a connection. When you ask someone “How are you?” do you honestly care?
I got that far before wincing. What pseudointellectual self-important vapid nonsense is this? How would "emotion" or "establishing a connection" possibly not involve transmission of information?
- tzs 2y agoI think you may have missed the word "about" in the quoted statement.
- EForEndeavour 2y agoI didn't. It's physically impossible for any perception of emotion or anything else to travel between organisms without the flow of information. Am I missing something?
- tzs 2y agoI think the point he's getting at is that the point may be the existence of the communication rather than the information given by the communication. Say a friend is hungry and about to go get lunch. I'm eating a pizza and offer to give them half. They take it, eat, and are no longer hungry. I might not have given them the pizza because I wanted to end their hunger. I might have given them the pizza to feel more positive toward me in hopes that maybe something more than friendship will develop. Consider the example he used of asking someone how they are. Usually that isn't meant to actually find out how they are. The person isn't meant to take it as a genuine query as to how they are doing, good or bad. It's a customary greeting with an expected response along the lines of "OK" or "Fine, how about you?" or something like that. Sure, there is information in that exchange, but it is not the information actually conveyed by the words of the exchange.