someone wishes to suggest that there is
a relationship between a mind and a pebble
that causes a mind to describe a pebble
to other minds, and then to suggest that
other minds relay only the description
of the pebble to other minds.
of course, we can remove the pebble, and say;
someone wishes to suggest that there is
a relationship between a mind and things
that causes a mind to describe things
to other minds, and then to suggest that
other minds relay only the description
of things to other minds.
this would suggest that things are templates for descriptors
as if the descriptors should naturally fold themselves around
things and, that, when the thing is removed, the description
will remain, which emulates the thing, and that description
may be passed on as if it, the description, were the thing itself.
the problem here is that you end up in a relay race with no baton
and that, when you get just two or three legs from the thing itself,
you have nothing to show but a mass of utterences.
there will be a loss of 'resolution' to the point
at which, no real information is being passed.
there's two little analogies,
one with digital images
and one with language -translations-.
if you take a ".jpg" image, and convert that
to a ".bmp" and then to a ".gif" and then
back to a '.jpg" you will find that the
image has blurred and 'pixelated'
you can see this just by converting from
'.jpg' to '.bmp' and back, a few times.
fast enough, the image becomes so marred
that you don't see anything.
similar things happen when you translate
from one language to another and back
again to the 'original' language.
as an example;
if i use the
dictionary.com "translator"
[the persian and thai may become question marks...
but, it's the english --> to english loop
that is of interest]
english -> pebble ->
french -> caillou ->
italian -> ghiaia ->
-> english -> gravel
english > pebble
french > caillou
persian > ??? ????
spanish > scree
thai > ???????
english > grit
========================================
the pebble is small and hard english
le caillou est petit et dur french
??? ???? ??? ? ??? persian
Es rock pequeños y duros spanish
?????????????????????? thai
-->
Are small and hard rock. english
Sont de petites roches et dur. french
??? ??? ???? ? ???. persian
Si roca pequeña y difícil. spanish
?????????????????????. thai
--->
If small and hard rock. english
Si petit rocher et dur french
????? ???? ? ???? ??? persian
Rock tan pequeño y difícil spanish
???????????????????? thai
Are small and hard rock. english
looop
========================================
=== english --> english
========================================
english
the pebble makes my mouth water
french
le caillou rend mon eau à la bouche
persian
??? ?? ???? ?? ???? ??
spannish
Stone me hace agua la boca
thai
?????????????????
english
Rock makes my mouth water.
french
Rock rend mon eau à la bouche
persian
??? ?? ???? ?? ???? ??
spannish
Stone me hace agua la boca
thai
?????????????????.
english
Rock makes my mouth water.
loooop
========================================
=== english --> english
========================================
english
the pebble fits neatly into my left pants pocket
french
le caillou s'inscrit parfaitement dans la poche de mon pantalon de
gauche
persian
??? ?????? ?? ???? ?? ??? ????? ?? ?? ??? ??
spannish
Stone completo pantalón del traje de bolsillo, me fui
thai
????????? Pocket Stone ???????????
english
Pocket Stone track suit pants to me.
french
Pocket Track Suit Stone pantalon pour moi.
persian
???? ??? ??? ????? ????? ???? ??.
spannish
Pantalones Track Suit piedra bolsillo para mí.
thai
???????????????????????????????????????.
english
Rock track suit pants pocket for me.
========================================
the pebble fits neatly into my left pants pocket
===becomes===
Rock track suit pants pocket for me
in the first two cases the translator did not do a poor job
but as the sentencing becomes more complex, the tranlator
loses resolution to the point of being rather incomprehensible.
of course this is a mechanical translator
whether this 'proves' or 'disproves' that
'things' provide templates for descriptors
may be somewhat inconclusive but tending
towards a false attribution.
i won't claim that this 'proves' that things
don't provide templates for descriptors,
but, i'd probably be more apt to argue
against such a proposition.
> > english > pebble
> > french > caillou
> > italian > ghiaia
> > english > gravel
> in case it isn't obvious, i take the english "pebble"
> and translate that into the french "caillou"
> and translate "caillou" in to the italian "ghiaia"
> and translate "ghiaia" in to the english "gravel"
> and when i did the sentences,
> that's what i did,
> translate from english to french
> and then from french to persian,
> persian to spannish, spannish to thai,
> and thai back into english.
> and, it gets garbled as the
> sentencing becomes more complex.
and then throw in the problems of
"telephoning" in the -same- language
one kid tells the next kid tells
the next kid tells the next kid...
and the original message gets garbled
just from passing it on and it just doesn't
seem obvious how a description alone,
could ever stand in for a 'thing' itself
it seems that you still have to assure that everyone in line
has had the same experiences with the same things, or at least,
with enough of the same things, to make any occasional hand waving
comparison at all comprehensible, and if so, the thing itself can
never have a "pass it on" attachment that carries any weight at all.
the moment you come upon a person in line
who doesn't know what a "pebble" is,
the dominoes immediately stop falling...
and you have to stop the sequence, bring out a pebble,
and show it to him,...or her
and only then, can it be "passed on"
> > and, it gets garbled as the
> > sentencing becomes more complex.
> and then throw in the problems of
> "telephoning" in the -same- language
> one kid tells the next kid tells
> the next kid tells the next kid...
> and the original message gets garbled
> just from passing it on and it just doesn't
> seem obvious how a description alone,
> could ever stand in for a 'thing' itself
> it seems that you still have to assure that everyone in line
> has had the same experiences with the same things, or at least,
> with enough of the same things, to make any occasional hand waving
> comparison at all comprehensible, and if so, the thing itself can
> never have a "pass it on" attachment that carries any weight at all.
> the moment you come upon a person in line
> who doesn't know what a "pebble" is,
> the dominoes immediately stop falling...
well, this may not prevent a successful completion of some message,
but, without some prior knowledge, the chances for "self repair"
would be reduced to just about zero.
like as if; if one participant heard the message sort of garbled,
and started substituting words that sounded like words that [he] knew,
but may not be the 'correct' word, and things of that nature,
as opposed to hearing a slightly garbled message, and realizing
from context, what word would best suit the parts [he] may not
have heard as clear as would be necessary for the completion
of some message relay.
so, the "dominoes" may not have to cease falling at that point,
but, the chances for the insinuation of greater error would
definitely be higher as such points.
so, if the description itself was
to stand in for the thing itself
one may expect that a slightly marred message
would still be "recognizable"
but, in actual practice, it seems as if
errors propagate efficiently and only serve
to further degrade the 'original' description,
which doesn't bode well, for a contention that the description
-can- ever stand in for the 'thing' itself.
etc.
just backtracking to the bit about "God"
providing a template structure for 'things',
it would look more like;
Descriptor ===> thing
and not;
Descriptor <===> thing
where "Descriptor" would be some
sort of mental image of the Deity.
like as if, the Deity has a mental imagery
which [it] then describes in to existance,
whereupon, those 'things', now, have
an existance of their own and can be
'desribed' in a variety of manners.
where 'description', now, tends towards
brute force mechanical comparison.
it would be that "God" -can have- a "one-to-one" correspondence
between "Descriptor" and 'thing, but 'things' themselves,
seem to lose such a one-to-one correspondence when
comparisons amongst themselves take form, and...
loss of resolution develops.
etc.
on a lighter note, if some group of creatures
made a particular noise every time they saw
a big bad wolf, that noise may not be /their/
'word' for big bad wolf
but could be their 'noise' for "very scared"
and so, if they moved to a new town,
and there was some other creature
like a big bad bear that was prowling about,
they could transfer their "very scared" noise
to that big bad bear, albeit, it may
take a few deaths in the family
to recognize the big bad bear with the same
intensity as they were recognizing
the big bad wolf,
and so, the noise would be credited to the fear threat level
and not to the particular cause of the fear threat.
so, this wouldn't be a description of
the thing that caused the fear
but a description of the fear so evoked,
and so, if the same fear evoked response
was found throughout the group of creatures,
it would be a communal descriptor of 'self'
and not a communal descriptor of the scary thing.
of course, you could pull out "fear" and
insert any number of stimulated responses.
nobody calls an apple pie an, "mmmm"
so, they may grab a bookmark from any nearby
and handy scattering of other things, by which
they save their place in line, and remind
themselves that apple pie is "mmmm"
"my head is full of bookmarks and
my stomach is rather empty"
"my bookmarks help me remember where i stashed
the rest of that steak fried rice"
"someone else heard me call my stash a "bank"
and now they all run around looking for the "bank""
"my head is rather empty, but my stomach
is full of steak fried rice"
"ok, we'll swap, some of my bookmarks
for some of your steak fried rice"
"now we a community"
"there's that den of thieves again"
"let's change =our= bookmarks"
the mother tongue and some other tongues
the mother returned to heaven
and some others made eleven
the cousin tongues
the greater is holier than its parts...