on 3/28/00 2:19 PM, Robert G. Grimes at [log in to unmask] wrote:

> Tresy,
>
> Calvin wouldn't know me from Adam but I've Emailed him a few times to get his
> ideas on memetics, etc.  I think that one way to explain the contagious
> aspects
> of memes is associated with certain neurotransmitter types and levels
> associated
> with the respective meme.
Not to go completely off-topic right off the bat, but memes seem to relate
intuitively to the buzzword du jour, namely the "tipping point." You know
Malcolm Gladwell's book? I have only read some of the installments when they
appeared in the New Yorker. I think Pinker may deal with memes but I don't
have his books beside me at the moment.
>
> He is a brilliant fellow and I have great admiration for him and his
> accomplishments but I must confess that I've only read his material on the web
> (shame on me).  As a dilettante, however, I really admire his knowledge in the
> field.  I also majored in clinical psychology years back when at the
> university
> so feel a sort of categorical kinship.  Perhaps I should get him on my long
> list
> of books still to be read.  Some think that language really originated
> primarily
> in the right hemisphere (in right-handed people), perhaps more like bird song
> (territorial cries, mating cries, feeding signals, etc.) and later into music.
> This kind of explains the songs (romans) or verse in which oral history was
> carried until slowly more centers evolved into action in the left hemisphere,
> etc.  These being more controlled, inhibited, language centers. Then, slowly,
> the species continued in an almost instinctual manner but slowly transferred
> activity more and more into the left hemisphere and spoken and written
> language
> came about with the subsequent controls.  Some think that way back there folks
> didn't "hear themselves think" but that this also came later, slowly evolving
> until we have the very complicated setup that we have today.
He would probably agree. His approach is to theorize that human
consciousness grew multilaterally, sort of like we build a conventional
bridge or arch, but that somewhere along the way came the cognitive capstone
that really gave the whole structure strength and resiliency. This sounds
like Pinker, too, in the theory of mind as a whole bunch of little
minicomputers yoked together, with one little minicomputer--consciousness,
more or less--acting as a router, but not being "above" the rest of the
mental machinery in any hierarchical sense.

But I don't get a sense here of WHY language would develop in even the right
lobe. What evolutionary purpose did it serve?
> Anyway, I don't
> blame Chomsky for not wanting to try to explain that as it would be next to
> impossible but, with the advent of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
> (fMRI)
> and the Proton Emission Tomography (PET) scans, we are beginning to see the
> actual areas and levels of the brain where activity takes place when we hear
> words, speak them, or think them.  We will no doubt learn a tremendous amount
> more about this function during the early part of this next century...  Thanks
> for bringing our attention to this book of Calvin's...

You're welcome. I'm pleased to hear that his other books appear to be worth
reading too.
>
> I know of an instance recently where some alternative medicine folks
> (reflexologists) were claiming authenticity for their craft by using fMRI so
> show that when they touched the "visual" centers near the foot (according to
> their strange beliefs) the visual centers "lighted up" in the brain.  Later,
> others demonstrated that it was probably because they "spoke" about what they
> were doing because when one speaks to the subject about visual orientation,
> etc., the respective centers light up, same with other senses, etc.  Thus, the
> supposed connection they claimed their experiment demonstrated was truly only
> a
> demonstration of the "spoken" association stimulating the corresponding
> activity.

Ach, alternative medicine! What a sweet debunking. Has James Randi dealt
with the particular expression of pseudo-science?


--
Tresy Kilbourne
Seattle WA