The Miracle of Language

By Wayne Brown
Surfaces and Essences
I have known my wife for almost 50 years. I'm still only vaguely aware of what it is "like" to be her. But language is a big help. I know what it is like when her back hurts and how she feels when the neighbors block our driveway. But some things I will never understand, such as the way she intercepts everything on its way to the recycle bin and thinks of ways to use it in her Kindergarten class. But here, language comes to the rescue. We invent a word. A private word that is known only to her and me.

KINDERGARBAGE. 

We have invented a new name for a situation, thus creating a bridge between her mind and mine. We both know what kindergarbage is. It's a new category. We both recognize when any particular object is in this category, although she is much more inclusive than I am.

"Surfaces and Essences" is about the magic of language - specifically our ability to instantly form  new categories and instantly recognize them by analogy.

If you want to know what I'm thinking, you don't need to stick my head into an fMRI machine. No amount of wiggly lines on an EEG will tell you. If you want to know what I'm thinking, I'll tell you.

And to plant an idea in your mind, I don't need to stick your head in some kind of Science Fiction contraption. Just listen. I'll tell you.

The ultimate question, the hard question of consciousness is, What is this thing peering out from my eyes? How do I explain what it is like to be me? How is it that it makes sense for me to ask what it is like to be you, but not to ask what it is like to be a chair?

If we are to approach the issue scientifically, we need to look at data. Lots of it. Language is uniquely generated by minds and uniquely able to change minds. We all have access to tons of it and can generate more examples without limit.

Hofstadter and Sander have collected and analyzed a vast selection of language examples that reveal its deepest secrets: it's Essence. In so doing, they have arrived at the audacious claim:
"The human ability to make analogies lies at the root of all our concepts, and how concepts are selectively evoked by analogies. In a word, we wish to show that analogy is the fuel and fire of thinking" (page 4)

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