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Article 2199 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: harwood@umiacs.umd.edu (David Harwood)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Scaled up slug brains
Message-ID: <45039@mimsy.umd.edu>
Date: 17 Dec 91 17:51:09 GMT
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In article <40746@dime.cs.umass.edu> yodaiken@chelm.cs.umass.edu (victor yodaiken) writes:
>
>Follows similarly (ie. not at all). There is no evidence to suggest that
>human thought is possible without the operation of human bodies. Can
>language develop without vocal chords (even in the deaf)? I don't know, but
>you don't either. Is there a major hormonal component to the development
>of thought? Is the interplay between movement and sensation key to
>development of brains? .... 
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	Apparently, the same genetic information is used to manufacture
correlated anatomical structures and physiological processes - a brain for
color stereo vision, for expressive facial musculatures, for speech
production and perception, for complex manual ambi-dexterity, for hormonal
processes, etc. It's a package. Humans could learn to use a language
creatively, without vocal cords, but they could not without large parts
of the brain which help control the vocal cords, mouth, etc of speech
production (and music-making). Babies are born to babble, to recognize
facial features such as mouths and eyes, and to grasp. (They like music too.)
	Deaf people who sign often use their mouths (and "speak"
subvocally) as they sign, conveying information, just as normal people 
read lips and symbolically gesture as they talk. Profoundly deaf people 
could learn to speak intelligibly, and fluently with difficulty, but they 
don't for various developmental and psycho-sociological reasons.
	Linguistic ability does apparently involve complex sequential-
pattern generating and recognition mechanisms, whether for speech, sign,
writing. Humans are also the only species to enjoy all sorts of creative
music, singing, whistling, humming. Can chimps be trained to play long
simple melodies on the piano? I wonder. (I've read that they have trouble
with generalized "grammatical" order.)
	Another comment - about human visual perception and motor control
(and feedback). There are well-known experiments where visual perception
is inverted optically by a prism (I think). If the person is carried about
in a wheel-chair, so that he cannot act on the world, things appear
inverted. On the other hand, if the person is allowed to walk about and
act in the world, then his perception quickly reverts to normal. There are
other peculiarites, which suggest that feedback of self-action in the
world is very important for animal intelligence.


