[UA] Thought and Language (was: Sleep Deprivation)

[Patrick O'Duffy]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Nick Wedig" <mrteapot at disinfo.net>
To: <ua at lists.uchicago.edu>

> The first and most fundamental of these adaptations of thought patterns to
tool usage would be the use of spoken language.  Zen buddhism points out how
hard it is for you to stop thinking in words once you've learned to speak.

Really? See, I recently realized that I _don't_ think in words or sentences,
most of the time. If I have a thought, then I often translate it into
words - but the thought has already been formed _before_ the words come into
my head. By the time I finished 'unpacking' the thought into a sentence, I'd
already thought it, and I'm aware that the language level is redundant (at
least for internal thought).

I see thoughts as being more like glyphs or ideoforms - densely packed
information that instantly unfolds for comprehension.

I'd be curious to see others' takes on this.

--
Patrick O'Duffy, Brisbane, Australia

Journalism is for the madly passionate. It's for the intense and the
half-fucking-mad and the people who give a shit.

- Spider Jerusalem, TRANSMETROPOLITAN #38


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