Anyway, here are some of my favorite quotes:
A speaker expects his listeners to share the grain size he has in mind, and when they don’t, the result can be a failure to communicate. (page 69)
The use of a mental echo-box in arithmetic and other forms of conscious reasoning is, I think, the main reason that many people report that they “think in” their native language. But these echoes are not the main event in thinking; most information processing in the brain is unconscious. (page 131) Basically, he says that we use native language as a kind of LUT (Look-Up Table) for algorithmic reasoning (like exact counting), but it may not be necessary for innate concepts (like “one vs. many”). In my case, I agree that even if you ask me in Japanese “how many people were there?” I could immediately respond “few” or “lots of people”; but if you ask me “exactly how many people were there?” I would probably start mentally counting in Spanish, my native language (multiplying number of seats per row by number of rows, etc.), and then translate the number to Japanese.
People often wish that they had an office with additional space, so they would have more places to put their books. But they never wish they had an office with additional dimensions, so they have more ways to arrange their books (Roger Shepard, page 155). (We think in 3D)
To think is to grasp a metaphor (the metaphor metaphor, Chapter 5). I think this is probably the main topic of this book, and it’s the way we have to scape Plato’s cave (as described in Chapter 9).
There are two ironies in naming (giving names to things or persons):
- The act of pointing and the intent to replicate it connect us to reality, not just to our ideas about reality, though one might have thought we have no way of telling them apart;
- the choice of a sound connect us to society in a way that encapsulates the great contradiction in human social life: between the desire to fit in and the desire to be unique.
Bilingual people feel that their second language is not as piquant as their first (page 332). This is on the emotional flavoring of words, cursing and swearing. It seems that this “flavoring” is part of the old brain (at the basal ganglia), and the links between words is established during childhood. So people can react to taboo words immediately (impulse), without thinking (self-control). I can’t give all the details here, but I think this is a very interesting topic. Chapter 7 I think is the most interesting chapter in the book.
The expressive power of language is a mixed blessing: it let us learn what we want to know, but it also let us learn what we don’t want to know. Language is not just a window into human nature but a fistula: an open wound through which our innards are exposed to an infectious world. This is on indirect speech. So expect people to “sheathe their words in politeness and doublespeak”.
By the way, some time ago I made some slides comparing mind models of 3 different authors: Steven Pinker, Marvin Minsky, and Jeff Hawkins. If you are interested, you can check the slides in Slideshare.
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