From: Adrian Tymes (wingcat@pacbell.net)
Date: Mon Feb 05 2001 - 10:33:33 MST
Brian Phillips wrote:
> A conlang (similar in principle to loglan/Lojban, though aimed towards a
> very different outcome) would be absolutely needed as the first native
> language of the brood.
> You could take advantage of the Sapir-Worf hypothesis (essentially
> language shapes cognition), and structure the brood's language in such a way
> that the identity barriers were intrinsically blurred. Multiple prounouns
> and careful vocabulary selection would be indicated. Inclusion of modalities
> of expression such as gesture and sign "phonenemes" would reinforce the
> "difference" between the Brood and others. why force kids to make up a
> secret language..give it to them. :)
Problem: if they only use this language to talk to each other (since no
one else speaks it), what's to stop them from simplifying to use their
everyday language to talk to each other? And if one does it before the
others, would that not induce concepts of individualiaty?
> You might encourage the children to think of the other Brood members as
> "extensions of themselves" from the earliest months. The ultimate goal here
> is "he looks just like me, so he is (essentially) Me". The aims would be a
> psychological gestualt, extreme empathy, and the development of
> pseudotelepathy (something that seems psychic, even though it's just a
> skill).
Problem: differentiation between that which one can control with one's
own thoughts, and that which one can not so control. Even with extreme
empathy and so forth, one does not have more actual physical connection
(as opposed to relational and emotional connections) with one's clones
than with any random human...unless you start out with, say, a
radiotelepathy implant or somesuch (as opposed to waiting for them to
be developed better).
Also, how do you reconcile different units' experiences? If one
happens to be luckier than another at a certain game, then one will
approach the next play of that game with more positive expectations
than the other.
> The weird thing about all this is it sounds doable...without waiting for
> nano to allow you to upload or download your mind and into a waiting clone
> body.
It does sound doable...but a quick check: if it is doable, why aren't
we doing it now (or, if we just thought of it, why don't we start now)?
The answer is, more often than not, the niggling detail of reality that
makes it non-doable. (Which, in this case, might just be that no one
yet has both the money and time to pull this off and the idea to do
this.)
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