Synopsis:
- Animals: hunters and gatherers = bind to territory, i.e."space-binders"
- Humans: agriculture = bind to a memory of the past and prediction of the future, i.e. "time-binders"
- Time-binding is enabled by a nervous system that is capable of constructing and manipulating symbols
- Time-binding allows to transmit knowledge to succeeding generations
- The rate of growth of human knowledge is exponential
- Language allows time-binders to categorize/generalize experiences and communicate them to others
- General Semantics to remedy the limits of language:
- We have fewer words and concepts than experiences: we "confuse" similar situations
- We must evaluate a situation less by intension (its category) and more by extension (its unique features)
- We must avoid categorization/generalization and spot the unique characteristics of a situation
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