Trying To Think Better By All & Any Means. To Be Human Is To Unleash As Much Intelligence As Possible, Instincts & Values Flow, Even Happiness. History and Science Teach Us Not Just Humility, But Power, Smarts, And The Ways We Should Embrace. Naturam Primum Cognoscere Rerum
The human propensity for conversation and debate is a foundational aspect of our species, closely tied to neural mechanisms associated with pleasure and reward. Homo sapiens can be understood as inherently dialogical beings—”debating animals” whose cognitive and social development is deeply rooted in the urge to speak, argue, and exchange ideas. These impulses are not merely cultural artifacts but evolved instincts that have historically played a critical role in the advancement of knowledge and cultural refinement.
The practice of articulating arguments, expressing passions, and engaging in dialogical reasoning fosters intellectual progress by challenging established beliefs and facilitating novel insights. Such advancement has been instrumental to human survival, enabling our species to adapt to extreme environmental disruptions, including events such as the supervolcanic eruption that is believed to have occurred approximately 80,000 years ago.
In contemporary mechanized societies, however, this fundamental instinct is often marginalized. The structure of modern labor, characterized by repetitive and functionally reductive tasks, leaves limited space for meaningful dialogic engagement. As a result, individuals may experience a profound sense of alienation and psychological distress. Sustained interpersonal communication is not merely a social nicety but a psychological and existential necessity. Alienation from speech is not only an alienation from others, but also an alienation from oneself and from happiness itself!
Moreover, making individuals happier through speech will foster higher culture and science!
That flower from my garden talks to me:
Patrice Ayme
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[The root of the word “language” is lingua, the tongue; but a general language is a means to communicate, shared by a number of species…. We have forgotten that by excluding ourselves from the natural world…]
However, most people still understand that when an animal hiss or growls it’s a sign of disapproval. Less well known is the fact that dogs have a standard greeting method: a quick muzzle kiss.
At least I discovered this to my surprise with my third and most permanent dog (my three dogs, in Bolivia, Colorado and California, were too ephemeral for me to have noticed that systematic greeting). Each time I reprimand my dog, or he wants something from me, or he has not seen me in the last fifteen minutes, he rushes towards me and gives me this kiss. Then I discovered to my surprise that many well disposed dogs also do it: it’s the equivalent of a handshake… And the general idea is the same
To understand humanity as it is now, one has to understand evolution. Evolution came first, it’s our genesis, our core. All animals, especially advanced animals, those who progressed the most, are the embodiment of half a billion years of animal evolution. Evolution is deep in the so-called soul, and the more one burrows in the human psyche, the more evolution one finds… However, much of this evolution is also often out there in the open, for all to see, such as the love of communication… without which there won’t be wisdom as a social phenomenon. Birds don’t just wellcome sunrise: they let the world know. And their own hearts.
If one wants to understand us, the crown of creation, observing other animals helps considerably. That was the key insight of one of the rare famous Christians who deserves to be a saint. St. Francis of Assisi’s approach to animals emphasized compassion, empathy, and a deep spiritual connection with all living things…. And it was understood as a way to understand Creation… This revolutionary idea came from the Frenchman of Assisi, or FreMan of Assisi, and was viewed as such a breakthrough, that St Francis was immediately made a Saint (1228)!
We have gone further: we now know that we are pretty much self-created, so by understanding other animals we come to understand ourselves.Learning from Dogs and all other creatures is a must!.
Most traits we view as human were evolved by our main creator… the laws of physics, over hundreds of millions of generations taking life’s tough examinations. It is only recently that unnatural forces of human culture have started to meta-select natural and artificial selection.
Most of what we view as human derives from historicity (chance) and necessity (the laws of physics, with initial conditions of the PDEs given by historicity on a rolling basis).
Consider how people communicate. First, they want to. Even the notoriously misanthropic Nietsche, who didn’t communicate much face to face, made communication with the Plebs his number one activity. Animals communicate with gestures first, so communicating with hands and facial expressions came first. Animals have been created, advanced animals, in such a way that they can’t exist without communicating. Even species which were thought as asocial turn out to have a rich social life.
When humans communicate, they touch their hands. Why? Because hands are weapons, and when shaking hands, those weapons are used in a friendly way, and can’t be used aggressively. Dogs do exactly the same thing. Dogs give a friendly touch of the muzzle indicating that their main weapon, their set of canine teeth, is not to be used. Evolution discovered, hundreds of million years ago, that it was very important to make friends and one had to show one’s intent, if it is friendly.
Just as all the animals “instincts”, what is necessary for a species to exist and thrive, came first. Human-like communications, with a highly tunable voice box is much more recent evolutionary speaking. In all human matters, one must look for the evolutionary roots first… If one is looking for understanding of the human species!
Patrice Ayme
***
Cockatoos used not just their voives, but the emotions convey by their crest… Even moose do this with their ears and mohawk (when the ears go down and mohawk up, they are getting ready toi charge… As happened to me once in Alaska…) Technicals: That advanced animals possess some form of language stems from the positive interference of several sorts of observations and theories. To wit:
Complex Social Structures: Many advanced animals, such as primates, dolphins, and certain bird species, exhibit complex social behaviors. These structures require sophisticated forms of communication to maintain relationships, coordinate group activities, and convey social status (thus leadership).
Symbolic Communication: Animals with whom it is tried, demonstrate the ability to use symbols or signals to form an ad hoc language. Chimpanzees. parrots and even dogs have been taught to use sign language or symbols to communicate specific ideas, indicating a capacity for abstract thought. Dogs can learn hundreds of words, and my English understanding dog learned French nearly instantaneously. One day early on, I told him in French, without pointing in any way, just talking to him, casually, and just once:”retournes de la ou tu viens” (return to where you come from)… and to my amazement he rose and went back where he came from, 50 feet away… I had no idea his mastery of French was that good… He knows the names of various fishes in several languages…
Vocalizations and Signals: Many species have developed intricate systems of vocalizations or body language. For instance, dolphins use a variety of clicks and whistles, while bees perform dances to convey highly descriptive information about the location of food sources. Birds and their elaborate singing (or screeching for corvids) are a well-known case.
Problem Solving and Tool Use: Advanced cognition often involves problem-solving and tool use, which can be facilitated by effective communication. Animals that can share knowledge about tools or strategies are more likely to thrive. Some of these are not obvious… to humans. But to canids, pointing in one direction means a lot, accompanied with a facial expression. For example, today at the end of a long loop, I pretended to loop back, and my dog sat on his haunches, looked at me as if I were having a psychotic episode, and then pointed in the direction of the invisible car, half a mile away on the other side of a hill. He had never been in that area before. After he had put me back in the correct direction, he was deeply happy with his student and all excited.
Evolutionary Continuity: The evolutionary perspective suggests that language must have evolved from simpler forms of communication (for example whistling or clicks). If early humans developed language to enhance social interaction and thus survival, it’s plausible that other advanced animals might have similar needs. Our distant ancestors under the dinosaurs were some sort of carnivorous squirrels… Squirrels communicate a lot…Wild squirrel communications, even with humans, involve all sorts of clicks, and rapid motion of the ears and the tail…
Neuroscience Insights: Studies of animal brains have shown that many species possess the same sort of neural structures which in humans are related to language processing, suggesting that they have the neurological machinery for complex communication.
In summary, while we cannot definitively state that all advanced animals have language in the human sense, the philosophical evidence points to the likelihood of sophisticated communication systems that fulfill similar roles in social animals as they do in humans.
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The finite number of symbols and infinite number of thoughts problem raised by Galileo (and Descartes) refers to the concept that although the number of symbols or words we have at our disposal is limited, the number of thoughts and ideas we can express using those symbols seems to be limitless. Galileo Galilei, the famous Italian scientist, philosopher, and mathematician, pondered this issue. How can we effectively communicate complex and abstract thoughts using a limited set of symbols?
Chomsky, 94 years old, was asked in an interesting interview (however biased) what was the most fascinating unanswered question, and he pointed at that problem. The CHAT AI, that is traditional answer, is to list or blahblahblah the obvious various strategies to enhance communication: Context, metaphor and analogy, clarification and feedback, non-verbal communication: In addition to words, CHAT AI would add, we communicate using non-verbal cues such as gestures, facial expressions, and body language… or a drawing board for much of math, physics, engineering, let alone art. Visual representations, and multimedia. Iterative and adaptive communication: Communication is an iterative process that involves sending and receiving messages. For example Galileo was ordered to shut up and stay in his house. Descartes fled to the Netherlands (CHAT AI won’t tell you that).
***
WHAT is it that we are trying to communicate? Brain geometry! Brain attitude!
Now brain geometry is made in the first approach of AXONAL paths. Each axonal path is made of a finite number of axons (one-simplex in 3 dim space to use math semantics). So the question is: how do we translate a bunch of one dimensional paths in 3 D space over? Simple! We describe them! How?
The short and glib answer is that computers can describe any path in 3 dimensions using only two symbols: 0 and 1…because any base two number system is equivalent to any other base, and a fortiori the 26 + 10 Latin alphabet plus usual numerals…)
I give a different (mathematical) approach (of mine) in a (Math technical) appendix to come (perhaps). Anyway I am not surprised that Galileo and Descartes didn’t know about computers (their existence had been eradicated by Catholicism). But Chomsky? Chomsky didn’t know about neural paths, neural networks, and how to digitally model paths with just two symbols?
Let me chomp on that…
Patrice Ayme
Random walk in 3 dimensions projected in 2 dimensions. Such a walk changes by +1 or -1 at every step in a 3 dimensional lattice
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AKIRA Intellectual Property Law
Intellectual Property Attorney, PhD Biophysics, California Bar, UK Solicitor, Member of the Bar of the Supreme Court, Computer Science Professor
0
EVIL EVOLUTION
Evil Is Not An Accident But A Necessary Mean To ecological Sustainabiilty. That It Is A Solution Is Also A Warning.
0
Ian Miller
New Zealand Physical Chemist musing very cogently about the state of everything
0
Our Friend Barry.
On Barack Obama’s formative years as a scholarship student at the Punahou college preparatory school in Hawaii, by his classmates and friends.
0
AKIRA Intellectual Property Law
Intellectual Property Attorney, PhD Biophysics, California Bar, UK Solicitor, Member of the Bar of the Supreme Court, Computer Science Professor
EVIL EVOLUTION
Evil Is Not An Accident But A Necessary Mean To ecological Sustainabiilty. That It Is A Solution Is Also A Warning.
Ian Miller
New Zealand Physical Chemist musing very cogently about the state of everything
Our Friend Barry.
On Barack Obama’s formative years as a scholarship student at the Punahou college preparatory school in Hawaii, by his classmates and friends.
Philosophy and science: the human adventure. Philosophy is not as popular as it should be, as it supports not just civilization, but human evolution. It matters what we love. Philo-Sophy: Love of Wisdom. But what is love, and what is wise? We humbly examine all the issues we can possibly imagine having to do with defining love, and wisdom. Plus Oultre!
New logic solving 25 centuries old logic problems such as the Liar Paradox And Incorporating Spirits of Quantum Logic, Local Time, And Local Truth. More General Than PDL ,
Trying To Think Better By All & Any Means. To Be Human Is To Unleash As Much Intelligence As Possible, Instincts & Values Flow, Even Happiness. History and Science Teach Us Not Just Humility, But Power, Smarts, And The Ways We Should Embrace. Naturam Primum Cognoscere Rerum
New logic solving 25 centuries old logic problems such as the Liar Paradox And Incorporating Spirits of Quantum Logic, Local Time, And Local Truth. More General Than PDL ,
Trying To Think Better By All & Any Means. To Be Human Is To Unleash As Much Intelligence As Possible, Instincts & Values Flow, Even Happiness. History and Science Teach Us Not Just Humility, But Power, Smarts, And The Ways We Should Embrace. Naturam Primum Cognoscere Rerum
New logic solving 25 centuries old logic problems such as the Liar Paradox And Incorporating Spirits of Quantum Logic, Local Time, And Local Truth. More General Than PDL ,
Trying To Think Better By All & Any Means. To Be Human Is To Unleash As Much Intelligence As Possible, Instincts & Values Flow, Even Happiness. History and Science Teach Us Not Just Humility, But Power, Smarts, And The Ways We Should Embrace. Naturam Primum Cognoscere Rerum
Patrice Ayme's Thoughts 