Re hard wiring (or its lack): we've heard so much about metaphor from you
William and then you demonstrate a reluctance to recognize a metaphor when
it's presented. Of course there is not "hard wiring" in the brain. If that's
the point, you win. On the other hand, if you talk to Noam Chomsky, or other
linguists, they are likely to assert that there appears to be an "innate
predisposition" between (say) ages three to seven, to acquire/develop
language skills. To be metaphorical, we might understand that as reflecting
something built-in biologically, as opposed to being added on, as per soft
ware or devloping skills at playing the zither.
Geoff C
From: William Conger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Perceptual Cropping was Marks on Canvas
Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2008 07:39:32 -0700 (PDT)
> I believe that we must already have the built-in cognitive
> systems to do or
> recognize anything that we now or in the future may do or
> recognize. Innate
> abilities/traits exist cognitively (hardwired potencies)
> long before we may
> become conscious, as a culture, of them.
>
>
> Luis Fontanills
> Architect
I don't think that says anything except that we can only do what we are
capable of doing. Trouble is, we don't know what our capacities are until
we achieve them. Thus, to say we were innately capable is only possible
after the capability is attained. A truism.
"Hardwired potencies"? Are we really harwired? That's a term that had no
currency before the computer terminology saturated the everyday language.
Brains are not hardwired in the way suggested by the lingo. Our brains can
and do adjust and reorganize neuronal activity as has been demonstrated by
cases where people who have suffered trauma to one part of their brains can
eventually recover abilities through another part of the brain. (Our brains
have areas specifically employed for certain functions but sometimes when
one area is disabled, an adjacent area can, in time, "adopt" its function.)
That's different from hard wiring.
