We are virtuosos at spoken language. Adults speak with what seems like no effort at all, even though everyday chats might be the most complicated phenomena ever observed. I see no reason why new virtuosities in communication could not appear in the future, though it's hard to specify a timeframe.
Suppose you're enjoying an advanced future implementation of Virtual Reality and you can cause spontaneously designed things to appear and act and interact with the ease of sentences pouring forth during an ordinary conversation today.
Imagine a means of expression that is a cross between the three great new art forms of the 20th century: jazz improvisation, computer programming, and cinema. Suppose you could improvise anything that could be seen in a movie with the speed and facility of a jazz improviser. What would that mean for the sense of connection between you and someone you love?
Post-symbolic communication
by Markfromcali 4 Replies latest jw friends
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Markfromcali
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Satanus
Sounds interesting. There is already a lot of virtual communication going on. What it is is people being tactful, not saying exactly the truth, but trying to acheive an end or a communication in indirect ways. Could call it bs, or social engineering.
If it came to be, i wonder if it would be used truthfully, for real communications, or for obfustications. I suspect that it is already going on in some medias, such as music, videos, tv commercials, tv politics. Take the star wars series, or the matrix series. The wachowski bros, in the matrix, said that they resorted a lot to putting archtypes in the series. It makes it a vertual form of communication. Not sure if that's exactly about what you are talking.
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Markfromcali
Well if you look at the entry on the Edge site you'll see he's talking about virtual reality, being an (the?) early VR pioneer. That's why it's called post-symbolic, because as deep as archetypes are it is still symbolic in nature.
What this doesn't address is what kind of consciousness is needed in order to effectively communicate in terms of these constructs. Obviously it would be rich in a sensory way, but as you point out the psychologically naive can be easily swayed by the underlying messages, which can take the form of propaganda. Our minds would also need to be able to generate forms that are detailed enough in order to make full use of this kind of technology, but on the other hand having the means to do so would enable us to practice and exercise that ability. He mentions the concept of homuncular flexibility which is interesting, where the brain can learn to remap control of different body forms.
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Satanus
'psychologically naive'
Perhaps, we need to mature, psychologically, as a group, before that kind of comunication can be.
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Markfromcali
Well, we can use our imaginations now in a kind of intrapersonal exercise as a thought experiment or what have you, but it seems we just underutilize it so there's mostly input rather than creative outputs, even information processing that is fairly detailed may follow a rather predictable structure. So yes, whether it's something like 3D TV or immersive body suits and/or direct neurointerface it wouldn't do much good if it's mostly one way communication. Even in the information age you're no more than a human servomechanism if there's not much intelligence behind those processes, regardless of increase in communication bandwidth.