X-Message-Number: 11935 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: for Mike Perry, on "universal languages" Date: Fri, 11 Jun 1999 00:47:01 +1000 (EST) Hi Mike! A universal language in the sense of one which everyone uses is not the same as a language designed especially to communicate with someone whose language you do not share. I will add, though, that at some point the latter kind of language simply cannot use symbols but some kind of pointing. And I think the attempt at such a language on the probe that has now wandered off into interstellar space could easily fail --- though it was a noble attempt. We're already aware of several different kinds of "intelligence" on the planet Earth; if you have a pet (or a computer) you'll know what I mean. It's an interesting question whether or not ANY other intelligence sufficiently close to us that we can communicate with it exists even in this galaxy, not to mention the Universe. If it isn't commensurable to our own, then most forms of communication become very difficult --- and it is an EMPIRICAL QUESTION, not one to be settled by logic or argument, whether or not our intelligence is the only kind which might (for instance) develop a high technology. I can imagine others quite incommensurable. As an illustration, consider all the different species of ants. Each individual ant is "dumb", but ants have domesticated other insects and other plants, created castles for themselves protected by "tame" plants, taken other ants as slaves, and done many other things which we might think of as requiring our kind of intelligence. Now first imagine a single species of ant which does ALL of these things --- and then go on from there by adding 1 billion years more. Just what might such ant descendants be capable of doing? And in why should the nest or any individual ant have any more "intelligence" than present ants do? As for universal languages that everyone learns to speak, please see my answer to Bob Ettinger in the previous CRYONET. Best and long long life, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=11935