Mark Pagel: How language transformed humanity

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13 жыл бұрын

www.ted.com Biologist Mark Pagel shares an intriguing theory about why humans evolved our complex system of language. He suggests that language is a piece of "social technology" that allowed early human tribes to access a powerful new tool: cooperation.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at www.ted.com/translate.

Пікірлер: 402

@lindseyrae8598 7 жыл бұрын

Who else only watched this for school?

@martikins 6 жыл бұрын

Lindsey R Hahahahaha me! And i'm From mexico xD

@barbaracarap21 5 жыл бұрын

Omg meee

@kathalenakrause6150 5 жыл бұрын

for uni over here in germany, yay

@eddy34030 5 жыл бұрын

same; FU Berlin? @@kathalenakrause6150

@notme-xz4yz 5 жыл бұрын

Me UwU for geography...

@somethingforyou345 4 жыл бұрын

crying here bc i need to write a summary to this due in 40 minutes

@thp8485 4 жыл бұрын

😂😂😂😂 hope you got it in on time

@xxZazaLyrics 4 жыл бұрын

FEEL YOU

@_maybeSilver 3 жыл бұрын

GODAMN SAME

@c_x_n9574 3 жыл бұрын

Are you at the FU Berlin??? :D

@tommarks6379 3 жыл бұрын

@@c_x_n9574 YES ^^

@skazzaks1 11 жыл бұрын

Agree. Not only do I agree with you that multiple languages are NOT the barrier to solving the worlds problems, but I also take issue with the fact that these kinds of talk presuppose that the goals of humanity should be infinite "progress". I used to hold the view that there should be one language, ...until I started learning them. Learning other languages has been the most invigorating and eye-opening time of my life. There are perspectives that cannot be translated.

@P00P0STER0US 13 жыл бұрын

This is one of the most pleasantly-delivered TED talks I've seen.

@foreverxundefined 11 жыл бұрын

I think its really cool that everything this man just I have thought about for a couple of years now. From trying to understand language is, the correlation of language and the rise of civilizations, the use of one language. I believe that we are heading towards an inevitable reality where words can be more than just an cognitive audio process. Maybe someday we will not HAVE to speak but instead just think and feel conversation and ideas.

@simabah 13 жыл бұрын

When communicating internationally there should be a unified and shared language. However, each language has it's own people behind it. The beauty of diverse literature, poetry and music is closely tied to the flow of the sounds and feelings of that unique culture. Languages that do not stay connected with their time/people are eventually abandoned/forgotten. Only those languages that stay vibrant and alive are the ones that can support the human evolutionary process anyway.

@JoeCarterTheWisdomOfLife 4 жыл бұрын

My guess would the roots of the advantage we have is centered on language and a eusocial relationship structure in our species. I think E.O Wilson has a fair point about the similarities between ants and humans, and the fact that both have colonized the world, adapting to many varieties of climates and environmental factors. We, like other eusocial creatures, have the capacity to socially orient around such things cooperative brood care, including offspring from other persons, we also have overlapping generations and a division of roles among us. These differentiated roles enable specialized behavioral groups to dovetail each others efforts into something more than the sum their parts. In developing a eusocial structure along with language skills, it unlocked the same kind of quantum adaptive diversity leap that eukaryotic cells did over prokaryotes in biological evolution.

@lloydloveday4501 11 жыл бұрын

You are correct, well done in learning new languages. However, his point was that humans are currently on an evolutionary path that may lead to one dominant language...a path that would take a long time, and one that we may diverge from for other reasons. He never mentions 'progress', but change is constant and inevitable. 2000 years from all currently spoken languages will have changed.

@AnaLombaLanguages 13 жыл бұрын

Excellent presentation and great questions about the future of languages and humanity itself. It may well be that it is not one language that prevails at the end, but a handful. It would be interesting to see why - what characteristics of this/those languages make them prevail. I do hope that some linguistic and ethnic diversity remains, as there is something about learning languages and reaching out to others who are not like ourselves that keeps the wonder and makes us grow as humans.

@kijekuyo9494 Жыл бұрын

I would answer that it doesn't appear that the characteristics of a language determines it's spread but, as seen in the history of ancient Greek, the Latin of of the Romans, and the English of the British Empire, and maybe the failure of Esperanto, that language use spreads by the culture that carries it. It may turn out that we end up with a single language with an expansive number of dialects only barely mutually intelligible. These dialects can carry an infinite amount of cultural diversity.

@bvenvi 13 жыл бұрын

Languages are not just a communication tool, those are the very well adapted mode of communications suited for each ecotypes.

@therealgreengoblin 2 жыл бұрын

man rly explained why we screenshot NFTs

@RDJim 13 жыл бұрын

I listen with interest and race to the back button before the TED extro chord shocks me from my bliss.

@terryjross 11 жыл бұрын

This is amazing stuff. If I had a suggestion about how to improve the talk, I think Mark sounds a little 'absolute' in dismissing the of ability of animals to 'learn'. That leads to reactions focusing on the visual theft that CAN occur in non-human species. If Mark's tone was more along the lines of 'many animals can visually learn...but the human species is at a completely different level of sophistication in this domain' then many members of his audience would be more receptive.

@jess522 8 жыл бұрын

How did we aquire social learning? I assume it would take social learning to aquire social learning?

@stoopidpants 11 жыл бұрын

Hey can someone briefly explain what is wrong with this talk? I watched it a while back and decided now to re-watch it, after noticing the unusually high amount of downvotes for a TED talk I decided to read the comments -- people are saying his thesis is wrong and he wasn't peer reviewed, etc, but can someone tell my specifically what's wrong with this? I am really curious. Thanks in advance.

@TheFringeBenefit1 13 жыл бұрын

That brings up a very good question: what do we value more prosperity or heritage?

@dudepal187 13 жыл бұрын

@carlosjhr64 I think he clarified that when he said "monkey see, monkey (almost cannot) do." The ability for humans to communicate and exchange is much greater than any other animal. Animals like dogs and dolphins can be trained, but they can't communicate and innovate upon ideas like we do. Thats what he meant. It is exactly what Matt Ridley (the man who asked a question at the end) wrote about in his newest book: The Rational Optimist.

@edgrimshaw3835 5 ай бұрын

One of the best TED talks ever... at least for a high school language teacher.

@Hallibutbouy 12 жыл бұрын

Science finds a description of things which works under particular circumstances using extremely rigorous, detailed and often novel methods of observation. That is the best way to get descriptions that work. The descriptions are formulated in terms which intentionally abstract from the observer. This doesn't mean that the same phenomena can't be observed in different ways, by people operating with different concepts and a different story be told which still fits for the different purposes.

@P00P0STER0US 13 жыл бұрын

I encourage you to look at International Auxiliary Languages. These are (usually) constructed languages intended to promote and ease communication among people of varied language backgrounds. It would be folly to replace the many languages with one, but it would be folly to fail to adopt one regular, designed language to serve as a medium of communication. As a simple example, Esperanto is already used as a reference language in translation.

@Truthiness231 13 жыл бұрын

@winterstellar No resources are needed, I concur with you that dogs are not self-aware (that resource I sent you said that). The point is (and if you google it this exact same confusion has been corrected multiple times before): being self-conscious/aware is defined as "aware of yourself as an individual or of your own being and actions and thoughts", whereas we're talking about being conscious: "Aware of and responding to one's surroundings; awake" (whether one has a "concept of self" or not).

@shampoovta 13 жыл бұрын

Best and hardest job I ever had was teaching 7 year old Deaf or Hard of Hearing kids "Noun" and "Noun Verb" The "Noun Verb Noun" One young lady who previously had to gab and grunt and hit to get what she wanted lit up like a bulb. When she understood what this could do for her she would grab the cards from me and WANT to do it again to get it right. I was blessed to have that moment and see languages true power. Oh and I am not a teacher. I am a proud rent a mom!

@PipelinerCRM 8 жыл бұрын

One lanquage to rule them all. Interesting about the cultural (social) learning. And how internet enabled "visual theft" in form of copyright is astounding. Everybody benefits.

@momentary_ 13 жыл бұрын

@Truthiness231 One might consider the ideas you use to imagine something to be a language. For example, when you imagine a scene or an object, you are thinking about the idea of a scene or an object before you imagine it. That idea is a language. It's impossible to imagine anything without the idea (language) of it first.

@fuunguus 13 жыл бұрын

@SinisterElements I think a lot of our modern civilization comes from when Europe started communicating between each other and work for bigger goals like exploration rather than fighting between each other over territories. Still it wasn't perfect, but it was a start and science and research got a boost.

@maggru91 13 жыл бұрын

Great talk but crazy loud intro and exit credits, FIX IT TED!

@P00P0STER0US 13 жыл бұрын

One advantage of language I don't think he really put forth is the idea that groups of people can discuss options to find a best solution to a problem, rather than requiring demonstration of each option. The idea of cooperation was clear, but the idea of cooperation and planning on complex and time-consuming activities, plans or designs was not really mentioned.

@Music4Evert 12 жыл бұрын

Evolving to have just one language, is like having thousands of paths of evolution and choose just one. I think we should evolve to have only one thing in common: respect and empathy for every fellow human being on Earth; the common language of understanding and reason in our nature but without disposing the precious languages around the world and the points of view that they gather. We have to stop seeing reality in a black & white, good or bad fashion. That's the next step in our evolution.

@Chelsea_Sphere 12 жыл бұрын

I have heard evidence to the contrary on social learning in animals, like the "100th monkey" experiment where one monkey on a remote island began washing their sweet potato before eating it and then a year later almost every monkey on that island was also washing their potato before eating it and then another year or two later, monkeys on another separate island that had made no contact whatsoever with the monkeys from the first island also began washing their potatoes before eating them.

@toutagamon 13 жыл бұрын

13:05 Random Fighting game, fighter selection screen! :D

@SecondSight 13 жыл бұрын

@aerobique ok, but i was talking about language. any kind of interaction between anything can communication by your definition, and of course we need some kind of connection to even exist. but if we're talking about spoken and written language with symbols like the speaker is here, then i think my point still stands. we can learn things without using words, and i dont think they are the only reason we evolved beyond other animals

@Hallibutbouy 12 жыл бұрын

@happydelicious so tell me after reading that, would these alternative but equally effective descriptions be different realities? For the people who accept them they would be the status quo - should they start fighting now? Besides that, what we are looking for when it comes to our human lives is precisely what science leaves out in its descriptions: subjective experience. And subjective experience is significantly shaped by just such stories about reality, true or not.

@dlld77 13 жыл бұрын

@mikesomething yeah as a first language Chinese is the most spoken, but english is by faaaar more spoken and understood, which is why it would be natural for it to be the "one" language and I have had the same thoughts for a while, different languages are just unnecessary barriers.

@shiftyjake 13 жыл бұрын

@SickBang That's pretty much what we've been doing for most of our history. Europe used to be like his description of New Guinea, with a plethora of languages (until gov's made an effort to stamp out dialects). At that time, Latin was the continent-wide second language, and the system worked well enough for the Renaissance to take place. Later it was French. Today it's English. Who knows what the next one will be. Maybe Mandarin?

@roidroid 13 жыл бұрын

@kaupaxup why does your channel have your subscriptions hidden?

@NicenEasyuk 13 жыл бұрын

I agree with you sir. Mark Pagel raises intruiging thoughts indeed but you can see language and the bare bones of evolution eternally connected. Frogs 'ribbit', birds have unique tweets and even crickets churp. The further up the ladder you climb animals develop more complex voices, a lions pur and roar for example. They may be simple but the more complex the pallet the more the vocal ability multiplies. Red and yellow can only make shades of orange until you add blue. We, happen to have blue.

@elchafa337 13 жыл бұрын

@elchafa What I mean by all that is that, in the case of humanity adopting one language, we should be wary not to lose concepts along with some languages.

@Truthiness231 13 жыл бұрын

@jordanpasek Yeah actually that is pretty good reading material, thanks. That actually reminds me to go into some deeper study on the Caribbean reef squid than what info I took in from an old biology book and a Discovery program on them; I always found that the most incredible way to communicate, via rapid color changes (purely visible communication, which requires line of sight but avoids giving your position away to predators/prey with sound like almost all other animals communicate with).

@Keytaster 12 жыл бұрын

@appolity Not just some in my opinion. He really has some quirky ideas about culture, anthropology, and language

@HolyCity2012 13 жыл бұрын

no audio for me

@modvs1 11 жыл бұрын

His Edge Conversations talk "Infinite Stupidity" is provocative.

@smoothbanana 13 жыл бұрын

@adamkoncz 1) I don't think forgetting one's native language is the point. We are heading towards more efficient communication and future generations should all be fluent in the "master" language. 2) Some multicultural societies aren't exactly multi-lingual. 3) Rainy Sundays are horrible.

@PixelSlayer247 13 жыл бұрын

Maybe with significant enough improvements in social media, personal interface to internet-capable media, and translation software, it won't be nescessary to standardize language; what matters is that we can all understand each other and language is still a finite thing. One day we may interact with people much like we watch foreign movies, reading realtime subtitles, or we could have the Star Trek take where the ship computer automatically translates alien languages and such.

@ghostbuddy 13 жыл бұрын

@SaintBeatStudios I should also mention how incredibly unnessary any deliberate effort towards that goal is. Some languages (madrin, and english for example) are already becoming extremely popular languages. On the other side of the equation, you've probably already conversed with other people that type in other languages, but you don't realize it because of automated translation. Im sure this technology would win out in an opportunity cost analysis over world wide education/culture reform.

@Henry92 13 жыл бұрын

20:00 LOL no hand shake for you :P

@FTLNewsFeed 13 жыл бұрын

@mikesomething You're correct - evolution does not have a goal, but you must understand that the mechanism by which evolution happens, natural selection, is driven by competition. There was a TED talk on Flowers posted a bit ago and while some flowers rewarded insects for spreading their pollen, others tricked the insects into doing it for them. Now, if the bees could talk they'd reduce the trickery and force the tricking flowers to compete some other way.

@tetleydidley 13 жыл бұрын

@Radjehuty he didn't say forxp2 was entirely responsible for language.

@8408Kike 12 жыл бұрын

everyone should speak Esperanto

@Truthiness231 13 жыл бұрын

@goog2k Actual now you've got me thinking, maybe not everyone is capable of thinking without language, which is why you're so certain it can't be done and I'm positive it can. If you would, please try something for me: close your eyes and try to imagine a new animal or shape or sound, just create something in your head, but try to keep your inner monologue turned off (granted it can be hard), and think about properties this object might have without words. Lemmy know if you can/can't do it ^.^

@Hallibutbouy 12 жыл бұрын

The most pure example of a theory that uses the status quo to create an account of history.

@carefulcarpenter 13 жыл бұрын

When working in high-end neighborhoods I discovered that there is a subtle language spoken which separates classes-- or should I say, manipulates language to the benefit of those with common understanding. The words were the same, but the intention was not communicated, to the disadvantage of the lower status level worker. Not a pigeon language-- a power and money language. I am college educated, also, so this language is not common to all.

@LudicrousTachyon 13 жыл бұрын

In his talk he made inadvertently made a good case for ignoring copyright and patent.

@smoothbanana 13 жыл бұрын

Technology has advanced considerably in the last few years owing to worldwide cooperation, criticism and computers. Language is of paramount importance. One world, one language would be efficient, but we would lose much of what makes us uniquely human (e.g. creative self-expression). English isn't necessarily the "best" language, but you have to give it credit - even the most bastardised and accented sentences still somehow make sense, which cannot be said for virtually every other language...

@freakingsunbro8750 4 жыл бұрын

Only watching this for school:(

@zaraamir9165 3 жыл бұрын

Watching this while attempting my exam.

@jmlynnify 13 жыл бұрын

@kaupaxup The fact that you didn't appreciate it doesnt mean that the talk is not provocatively insightful -- which I think it is. Watch it again and maybe you'll pick up on how some of the observations and thoughts he shares are powerful, especially when you consider the implications attending their discovery and exploration.

@foreverxundefined 11 жыл бұрын

The brain is an amazing template, but our current technological advancements are just some indicators on what can be achieved in the near future. Maybe we will reach a point where we can plant chips in our brains to optimize the brain chemistry for learning, socializing, or even just living a higher quality of life. Even by thinking this into existence it has the potential to become a reality.

@adam-k 13 жыл бұрын

@smoothbanana Yeah and people are so busy. Most of them don't know what to do on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

@iceproofcomet 8 жыл бұрын

This Talk as flawed. Now while I will say that it was given 5 years ago that does not excuse that fact that there have been multiple studies going on about how many different species or animals do in fact have language. For instance there was Alex the African Grey Parrot who had amassed a vocabulary of 150 words and could distinguish between objects that were small, large and could count to 6. There is also Rico, a border collie who could recognize over 200 different labels. Even if given a new label he could infer that an unknown word would be referring to the new label and he would remember this association. Moving on there are studies that show that species such as Bees, Horses, and Even Trees have their own language that, while it may not be as sophisticated as the human language is still considered to be language. Sauce: www.bbc.com/future/story/20121016-is-language-unique-to-humans www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141111-plants-have-a-hidden-internet

@celinak5062 7 жыл бұрын

iceproofcomet +

@deselby9448 6 жыл бұрын

Linguists have a specific definition for the word language. To linguists vocabulary is not language. Grammar is language (see Susan Curtiss's definition of language which is supported by professional linguists). The grey parrot you refer to may have amassed a vocabulary of 150 words but the parrot would have no comprehension of grammar and accordingly no fluency of language. Genie Wiley learned the meanings of hundreds of words but never achieved fluency at language because she was unable to learn grammar. Vocabulary without grammar = no language. Vocabulary without grammar is just words. Vocabulary without grammar prevents you from talking about the past or the future or extremes. Vocabulary without grammar is a primitive communication system and simple information can be conveyed but it is not a language. At least not according to professional linguists.

@erozionzeall6371 6 жыл бұрын

Exactly. There're not as complicated as human language.

@jamiethompson5153 6 жыл бұрын

I did his module on my degree, and I am using his methods to study atm, he knows all this he publishes papers on animal communication. But this is specifically about humans

@PixelSlayer247 13 жыл бұрын

Actually, the Tower of Babel story in the Bible is the one above all others that actually ticks me off the most, and even when I believed, I remember thinking that made 'god' quite the prick, and not worthy of worship. "Humans working together and being able to understand each other would give them too much potential and happiness, can't have that, now!"

@StopFear 13 жыл бұрын

@SaintBeatStudios Yea, I agree with you, if you acknowledge that the best way to start it now is to teach English to everyone all over the world. That would be most practical since it is already everywhere, so inventing another one is a waste of time. I am a native Russian speaker but speak English fluently and I'd hate to see more Russian language in the world. It is unnecessarily complex, but English is more flexible.

@MrCattlehunter 13 жыл бұрын

@mikesomething Evolution may not have a goal, but it does tend to produce things that outcompete everything else in their environments. I don't know if languages qualify for that, since we can have several at once, but it's pretty clear that it's only practical to have one *global* language, whatever the local ones may be. Currently, it seems English is outcompeting all the others in that area.

@pickledcucumber5547 4 жыл бұрын

special thanks to Seçil Hoca...

@DigitizedSelf 13 жыл бұрын

@Anonymous302YT If you think about it quite a lot of the TED talks can be summed up fairly briefly; it seems like the unifying concept is presenting the topic beautifully and inspiring rather than in an informative way.

@DrequimaX 9 жыл бұрын

Any ways English is not my mother tongue, but I had to learn it.... to learn and be co-op with people..... form different countries.....

@TasteOfGreen 13 жыл бұрын

@georgemargaris It was pertinent to the talk, he was illustrating that even early humans understood the power of language. I think scientists have the right to quote anything they please if it aids in the explanation of science.

@MrChristianRC 13 жыл бұрын

I do agree with his ultimate point however. I have always advocated for one universal language, since multiple languages, ultimately (no matter how much ppl love the French language for example, or some similar romance language), really just end up dividing us. Others link language with culture however, in an attempt to argue for the conservation of multiple languages. I guess I just consider practicality more important than culture...

@halfthishalfthat 13 жыл бұрын

@MrChristianRC I agree with you, this is why I advocate for everyone learning Mandarin.

@shampoovta 13 жыл бұрын

@parkj238 He is not saying animals don't advance for a lack of tool usage or that they don't have a physical language or grunts and posturing. Some primates have even learned ASL but they don't teach it to other primates.

@dudepal187 13 жыл бұрын

@carlosjhr64 Like I said, rare or highly trained. Crows, chimps, and octopi are able to "innovate" solutions, but they cannot exchange and expand upon each others' ideas. Thats what is meant by "no animal innovates like we do." Our ancestors did the same thing for millions of years and now a change has occurred that allows us to innovate and solve significantly faster and more efficient than before. None of this is preconceived or assumed, it's observed reality. Our success lies in exchange.

@aerobique 13 жыл бұрын

@coaxx _ "language did a lot, but we're still able to learn without communicating" communication is everything.. when plant-leaves sense the sun, turn in its direction- its pure communication put a synthesized embrio (human or whatever) /without mother communication, without any "communication") in a ~white, "matrix" like room without influence and communication. It just dies in a couple hours, if not faster. language does a lot, yes.. but "communication" is everything- on every level

@ryinski2 13 жыл бұрын

While our language is key in our cataloguing of information so that it can be continuously built upon and refernced I don't see how it could be the most important development of the human intellectual ability. Some people are naturally more perceptive or more inquisitive or are quick to spot patterns or similiarities in things that other might not notice etc. and that couldn't have anything to do with social learning yet is clearly very important. Anthropology is too quasi science for my tastes.

@Gjerda 13 жыл бұрын

I don't understand why people dislike these videos

@esperantoasocio 11 жыл бұрын

Unfortunate that there is no mention of Esperanto here. This language aims to be a common language. Not a single language dominant language. Big difference !!

@serialcomplexity 12 жыл бұрын

@DebtRich Although I agree with you on the first two points. However it wouldn't be a linguistic prison if the vast knowledge of those languages and cultures are accurately translated into whatever predominant language is agreed upon. Engligh or otherwise. One common language would lead to a common mix of cultures, eventually, though I would have to admit whichever language is agreed upon would probably be the predominant culture throughout society.

@dudepal187 13 жыл бұрын

@carlosjhr64 He may not be the best speaker when it comes to this topic, but maybe it's just because I've read Matt Ridley's book that I see what he is trying to say. He is merely saying that language contributes to our ability to exchange. Anyways, I don't know what you're talking about now.

@parthep 3 жыл бұрын

got this for edpuzzle lo.

@Truthiness231 13 жыл бұрын

@goog2k Hah, I did say from the start this would become a debate on semantics XD And we can leave it at that; I'm sure we both actually see eye to eye now, we've just been dealt different lexicons. GL and HF, fellow TED viewer ^.^

@dudepal187 13 жыл бұрын

@carlosjhr64 Innovation is simply unique to us given the structures available in the human brain. No other animal exchanges ideas like we do. That is simply a fact, which is what he is pointing out as an important part of our evolutionary history. Where exactly is your disagreement?

@murilodelmondes 11 жыл бұрын

Just look for Patricia Ryan's talk in TEDx Dubai. That makes much more sense to me. By speaking one single language we would be throwing away tons of accumulated knowledge - and future knowledge as well - and perspectives, which is the big contradiction in this talk since he talks about how we can build upon previous ideas.

@Dixavd 13 жыл бұрын

@DigitizedSelf 1 example)Here's a study on how language may effect the way people solve tasks even without using linguistic skills in the main task at hand. cogsci[dot]northwestern[dot]edu/cogsci2004/papers/paper575[dot]pdf It shows that even if it was proved that a language was built that could express anything, any emotion , any understanding, any description - merely the act of learning the different patterns would lead ot much more creativity as people will think and resolve differently.

@MJMaximum 13 жыл бұрын

really interesting.

@Clarensee 13 жыл бұрын

20:00 shake hand?

@elchafa337 13 жыл бұрын

Very good talk but I don't agree on the one language theory quite at all, the reason being that each language has an implicit set of values that the society that speaks it holds valuable. That is why some languages can explain a concept in a single word while others need many phrases to explain it and are sometimes not as close to explaining that concept as the 1 word in the other language.

@StopFear 13 жыл бұрын

what about sign language

@WhichDoctor1 13 жыл бұрын

@goog2k Sorry to jump into this discussion but are you really saying that if you are confronted with a logical problem like designing a object or mechanism to perform a task that you cannot do it without spoken language? Because I can. And if you dont classify designing a stone tool or the mechanism of a gun as thinking but rather "consciousness" then your getting rite into semantics.

@roq99 12 жыл бұрын

Thumbs up for Mr. Swanlund!

@joanbautista 5 жыл бұрын

This Talk Is so damn underrated, Good job

@kaarenremley7585 9 жыл бұрын

hmmm- It's interesting but unnecessarily dismissive of other species' ability to communicate & work together- for example crows.... Plus not all humans are reasonable in their communications else we wouldn't have so many wars...

@fos8789 6 жыл бұрын

Even a war is an amazing work of cooperation, that animals are not capable of doing, at least not in our scale

@milekrizman 5 жыл бұрын

Some 'cultures' are basically warlike. Serbians and Montenegrins come to my mind.

@antoshahorosha 13 жыл бұрын

Language is encryption. Brilliant.

@Truthiness231 13 жыл бұрын

@winterstellar Oh btw I found this winterstellar (grandin(dot)com/references/animal.consciousness.html) which I thought would be helpful as well. Not only does it explain that dogs are conscious (they're just not "self conscious", or IOW "self aware", a special level of consciousness we and a few other species have). Also interesting is it talks about human beings thinking WITHOUT language (the example given was of Dr. Grandin talking about her brief moment before an accident). ^.^

@carefulcarpenter 13 жыл бұрын

Suggest video "Nimrod and the Tower of Babel" by bootleggersouth-- top on my favorites file.

@Truthiness231 13 жыл бұрын

@goog2k Thought (as defined by Wikipedia (yeah, I know... =p)): "Thought" generally refers to any mental or intellectual activity involving an individual's subjective consciousness. It can refer either to the act of thinking or the resulting ideas or arrangements of ideas. Thus, animals think. And thus, languages isn't necessary for thought. I also find it ironic that you were surely gifted with a brain like the vast majority of us and yet you can't use it to think...

@fuunguus 13 жыл бұрын

@JossJossJoss1 I would like to make a statement, this talk is the best!

@CantWeedThis 13 жыл бұрын

@goog2k i dont think in language, theres no need to unless you plan on communicating the thoughts.

@James32529 8 жыл бұрын

One world with one language? Is that possible?

@thegoomy42 7 жыл бұрын

James Brown I don't think so (and hope not). Even today, with English as an international Lingua Franca, it's global dialects continue to diverge. And China's attempts at forceful standardisation still haven't eliminated the great language diversity there.

@Maraus92 13 жыл бұрын

@CantWeedThis There are language that goes way in front of any language in the world or the universe, it is called art.

@WhichDoctor1 13 жыл бұрын

@goog2k So its all a matter of definition. As far as I'm concerned using your brain to solve logical problems is thinking weather you use language or visual means to do it. From your perspective thought refers solely to the use of language in the mind. So thats ok, though I could refer you to wikipedia: ""Thought" generally refers to any mental or intellectual activity involving an individual's subjective consciousness." No mention of language :-p

@Dixavd 13 жыл бұрын

I don't think one language is the answer - in each language lies an ability to say something and express ideas that other languages simply do not have the capacity to - limiting us to one language forces us to lose a lot of expression and ultimately a lot of creativity given from the diversity on how people think and react because of the way their language built.

@adam-k 13 жыл бұрын

Humans evolved very slowly for 200 000 years, basically unchanged until the last 10-20 thousand year (some places unchanged until the last 100 years), they actually lived in small communities. Of course language is important, but there is evidence that alone it is not enough. (ie without agriculture, urbanization etc)