Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id XAA19286 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 16 Nov 2000 23:50:22 GMT Message-Id: <5.0.0.25.0.20001116130802.03502900@pop3.htcomp.net> X-Sender: mmills@pop3.htcomp.net X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.0 Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2000 13:38:34 -0600 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: Mark Mills <mmills@htcomp.net> Subject: RE: Fwd: Thinking Like a Chimp In-Reply-To: <A4400389479FD3118C9400508B0FF2300410E2@DELTA.newhouse.akzo nobel.nl> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
At 05:12 PM 11/16/00 +0100, you wrote:
>But this can't be so. There is more to cognitive abilities than just
>storage of some inner somethings. That, as I have pointed out before, is a
>pre-Chomskian view of the mind that went out in the mid-50s. I do apologise
>to be so boring about this, but I just don't seem to be able to get the
>point across. We would need to have infinite-sized brains 'to stuff in' all
>the inner memes for our infinitely variable linguistic capabilities.
>Mind-as-storage models (call the thing that's stored a mnemon, a meme or
>whatever) just won't work and no serious cog psych or neurobiologist has
>believed this for the last 45-odd years at least.
Derek,
You are right, I should have mentioned grammar. I suspect we will
eventually find neural memes parsed at the cellular level. Koch reports
cells have the ability to generate neural signals with FM modulation and
perform directional signal broadcasting, so there doesn't seem to be any
evidence that grammatical cellular signal processing is impossible due to
bandwidth limits or limited signal regeneration abilities. If neural signal
recognition powers turns out to be widely distributed throughout the brain
(and Edelman this so), human and chimp neural grammar should be remarkably
similar.
I don't think there is a 'language organ' as Chomsky proposed and Pinker
advocates. I favor Edelman's suggestion that our macroscopic linguistic
grammar emerges from widely distributed pattern processing abilities at the
cellular level. Additionally, Edelman's notion of neuronal group selection
seems an excellent way to separate genetic and memetic aspects of the
brain. (see Neural Darwinism and other books by Edelman)
Mark
http://www.htcomp.net/markmills
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