| > Dealing with other people is probably the biggest part of most people's cognitive burden, though. That's a scary thought. I haven't tried to measure my own cognition, but I doubt that modeling other human's behavior amounts to even 10% of my waking, thoughtful time. When I read this part of your comment, it struck me that this might be very different for a typical person. What if they're spending 99% of their time doing this? How could they have any intelligent thought at all? Perhaps they use this to substitute for intelligent thought... it would explain how pervasive groupthink is in all areas of life. I will have to study this. > nd it's likely that the ability to make complex inferences when on one's own (solving a mathematical problem, writing a novel, or whatever) derives from the experience of communicating complex ideas through language. This isn't true for me. I will not dismiss that it's true for others. But it also implies that they would have very limited minds... not only can they not contemplate ideas for which there is no useful language yet, they'd also be limited by whether they can imagine explaining it to others well enough that those people could understand it too. They'd be virtually as stupid as they imagine everyone else to be. Thank you. You've given me much to think about, and few do that. |