On Tuesday, April 15, 2014 12:44:32 PM UTC-4, Brent wrote: > > On 4/15/2014 4:38 AM, Telmo Menezes wrote: > > An interesting related hypothesis is that language originated >> from synesthesia caused by psychadelics. >> >> Telmo. >> >> >> I had heard that Telmo. Do you have a reference, a link? >> > > Unfortunately not. I think I heard in a talk. Might be related to > McKenna's "stoned ape" theory, but I can't find anything... > > > That seems very far-fetched considering that animals already exhibit > rudimentary language and that its selective advantage for a tool making > social animal is huge. I don't see how synesthesia could do anything but > confound and confuse the development of language. >
I don't have any particular view on the possible role that psychedelics played in human evolution, but I can see how synesthesia could be an advantage if there were reason to think that it were present in some meaningful way. There is a guy who has acquired musical savant ability because he can see graphic symbols of notes that show him how to play. That sort of thing could be developed for language just as easily. The one who can see or hear or taste the sensibility of language could very well be in the best position to build consistent and aesthetically harmonized ways of integrating verbal language with gestures and writing. It would only be confusing if consciousness was an isolated program that can only build from the bottom up rather than the unifying resource of all phenomena....but there is no reason that we have to assume something like that. Craig > Brent > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
