Thinking to yourself.... how?

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Sagacious Dolphin
You'd have to calculate things though. When someone throws something towards you, your brain automatically calculates a parabolic curve trajectory to estimate where to catch it. You in effect think where to catch it - consciously or subconciously. Whether you can or not is down to motor skills.

It seems that we don't actually calcuate as much as we guess People have been doing a lot of throwing and catching for aeons afterall. Even primitive tribes use spears and such to hunt beasts.

Originally posted by Sagacious Dolphin
So a person who never learns any languages can not imagine a blue sky, green field, etc.. in their mind? Or even express their though of a blue sky and green field by taking a blue and green crayon and drawing them.

I agree that humans do not need a language to describe concrete things.

Originally posted by Sagacious Dolphin
IMHO language is not a prerequisite to thought and expression.

Humans and languages are intimately linked. Even the most primitive tribes have their languages, and I do think that language to some degree do colour our thoughts, and some concepts are difficult if not impossible to think in another language Abstract ideas are probably not possible without a language, at least not possible to communicate these ideas to others.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

I think in words. In fact, I think in entire paragraphs, unless I'm thinking poetry- in which case it's stanzas.

[Juggernaut]

I've heard that the reason you don't remember anything from being a baby is that whilst you still think, you haven't developed a language yet and thus it's harder to sort the thoughts into memories.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Juggernaut
On the same note, there are no such things as "luck", or "chance", those are just substitutes for non-sufficent information.

Lets say you bought a lottery ticket. Clearly you had no idea what numbers would be drawn. So if it's not luck or chance, how do you explain it's not you who won?

[Juggernaut]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger


Lets say you bought a lottery ticket. Clearly you had no idea what numbers would be drawn. So if it's not luck or chance, how do you explain it's not you who won?

I had no information on in what order the numbers would lie in the bowl, how many times it would be shuffled, the ticket's weight and size, the person who draws the winning numbers's mental state and thus in what way he would grab the winning number, etc. etc.

Provided enough information and know-how, it would be possible to calculate the infinite future.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Juggernaut

Exactly, a living being always acts according to one's preferences, preferences are gained through genes and environment, thus, no free will.

Speak for yourself.

[Juggernaut]

Yet another frightened soul shutting his eyes for the merciless, inevitable truth.

[Immortal Wombat]

Originally posted by Juggernaut
Provided enough information and know-how, it would be possible to calculate the infinite future.

And a super-computer at least as large as the universe...

Oooh maybe this universe is actually a vast simulation of another one, running at double speed so some other humans in another universe can predict their future

Hi fellow Me!

[Az]

It's time for the ignorant amateur to speak....

actually preferences are behavior , and behavior is gained through education, that is the evolution of neuron connections. Connections that recieve many electrical pulses are widened , while the ones that don't get any , die out . ( the last sentence can also be applied to animal evolution )

if you don't start thinkg in new directions ,or absorb alternative information , the amount of new neuron connections will decrease.

[Zoid]

Re: I may be straying a bit off-topic , but...

Originally posted by Dalgetti
did you know that we , human beings, do not take conscious decisions? all decisions are made on an unconscious level , while the efect of 'free will' , and 'dicision making' is only a side effect , something we feel is happening while it's not . there was an experiment that proved that.

Do you understand the meaning of this ?!

The danish writer and science journalist Tor Nörretranders wrote a book on this, "Notice the world" (my translation) in 1991. "Free will" is, he claims, an afterconstruction by our mind, since the descision has already been made when we become aware of it. In the book he also writes that the "bandwith" of the senses is almost infinietly larger than the "bandwidth" of the mind 11Mbps compared to 1-16 bps. This means that almost everything we take in via our senses flies past the mind unnoticed.

"What is done by what is called myself is, I feel, done by something greater than myself in me"

-James Clerk Maxwell on his deathbed 1879

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Juggernaut

Provided enough information and know-how, it would be possible to calculate the infinite future.

That would be true, but classical physics was debunked a century ago.

In the quantum world the future is not predetermined, and it is probable to certain that we have no free will.

Do you understand the meaning of this ?!

The defence team of a criminal justice case would have a field day if it was proven.

[Kassiopeia]

Originally posted by Eli
I think in English, and I blame you all for that.

I think I'll join Eli here. Damn you! Nowadays, say, I need to word out the phrase "Pandora's box" in Finnish. I say "Pandoran laatikko", even though it is "Pandoran lipas", because you buggers have made my mind think in English! I have to translate that into Finnish speech, so I get all these nyance errors in my talk. Like a foreigner that can pronounce and talk well, but doesn't know the usual "habit" of the using of words with several different meanings.

[spartak]

I would say that I tend to think in symbols and a lot of time I don't think at all. In my job I have been trained to reach decisions quickly based on the information available. A lot is interview based and questions just pop up in my head without prompting. So much of what I do is subconcious it frightens me sometimes. Its almost as if I have been turned into a human computer - feed information in get answer out with little concious analysis of what I do. (Alright for the rest of you garbage in - garbage out). On one occasion I was training anew colleague and after a 8-9 question interview he asked me to explain my thought processes. It turned out that 15-16 different elements had gone into my decision but at no time was I concious of any thought process - just questions and an answer appearing in my mind.

As far as the symbols goes I remember reading the begariad when I was much younger and not catching the name change from garion to belgarion for a year or so. Simply because, it seemed that my mind had allocated a symbol to garion and another unconnected on to belgarion. Very odd.

I am never concious of thinking in words when I do any serious thinking. Even typing this the words just trip out of my subconcious with little if any concious filter. Does anyone else "think" like this?

[Kaak]

as far as the blue sky, like i said, descartes believed the senses were deceptive...and since i was basing the arguement on descartes...

[MrFun]

We take for granted so many words that we have.

For instance, the color green. The word green was created as an English word to describe a specific color.