Date: Mon, 27 May 2002 10:46:54 -0700 From: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> To: Brad Knowles <brad.knowles@skynet.be> Cc: Greg 'groggy' Lehey <grog@FreeBSD.org>, pgreen <polytarp@m-net.arbornet.org>, Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@online.fr>, chat@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Language in danger: Language loss Message-ID: <3CF2710E.BE2710EC@mindspring.com> References: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0205261919370.49175-100000@m-net.arbornet.org> <3CF17486.F06F3E6A@mindspring.com> <20020527104558.B43610@wantadilla.lemis.com> <p05111701b917c51e8100@[137.120.142.179]>
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Brad Knowles wrote: > At 10:45 AM +0930 2002/05/27, Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote: > > Imagine you're driving down a crowded freeway and a car in front of > > you suddenly stops. You have to avoid it. How do you do it? "Well, > > if I veer to the left, I may hit the gravel on the side of the road, > > if I veer to the right, I may hit the central reservation, but there's > > not enough space between the lanes for me to get through, so maybe the > > gravel's the least risk"? Of course not. Putting thoughts into > > language is too slow for your own thoughts. > > I would argue that this issue is handled largely by reflex, with > relatively little conscious thought. What conscious thought has gone > into this process happened before the situation began, so your reflex > is going to be guided by your memory of the overall situation > immediately before the unexpected occurrence. You know, I was going to liken driver's training and playing such situations over in your head before the event itself, to a "kata", which is (basically) a martial arts technique for training reflexes to carry through into useful actions. But then I thought "Naw, they'd never buy that one". 8-). In point of fact, the first accident I avoided as a result of a lane change was as a result of a discussion and a subsequent working out of the math to reassure myself that it was true, following observation of an "autocross" meet. I don't think it would have occurred to me to change lanes, had I not practiced it in my head two weeks before the incident... not quite a trained reflex, but, the decision was obviously based on the contents of long term memory, rather than problem solving in situ. As such, I still don't think that your reaction to an imminent accident situation really constitutes "thinking", per se. It's more like it takes place in the hypothalamus, rather than the cerebrum (as in "thinking") or the medula (as in "trained reflex"). -- Terry To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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