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Free-range Thoughts

“Marinating in the Mooc”

October 21, 2013 Think Know Tools – My question

Logan – Future Languages

Logan in The Extended Mind theorizes that there exists an evolutionary chain of languages (1-speech, 2-writing, 3-math, 4-science and 5-computing) each of which evolved when the “informatics capacity” of all previous languages failed to convey “some new level of complexity.” Recently he added a sixth language, the Internet and suggests that virtual reality and expert systems may represent the seventh and eighth languages. Can you identify the early signs, signals, trends, scenarios (futurist methodology) that exist to bolster his claims for the two emerging languages, and/or do you see other languages emerging. Give evidence. How does each emerging language address the new level of complexity we find in our present era, its’ possible, probable, and preferable future.

Another question I have would be impossible to answer: What did we give up in the way of capacities when humans acquired language and conceptual abilities? Was there some cognitive recycling of older more ancient dispositions?