Justin Riddle #20 - Language as Ontology

In episode 20 of the Quantum Consciousness series, Justin Riddle discusses language as fundamental to a description of reality. It’s tempting to view linguistics as a luxury science only for humans with some free time on their hands. But language is fundamentally mysterious. Just as mathematics cannot be reduced down to simple principles, language has similarly avoided an easy description. Could it be because language is core to how our minds think at a fundamental level and is not just a tool used for communication? In this episode, we discuss the idea that language is the programming of our computational self. On a digital computer level, our code is like that of DNA – it can be copied directly. But at a quantum computer level, wave functions are not allowed to be copied directly (the no-cloning theorem). It goes to reason that quantum information requires a new type of information copying to occur: perhaps the language of quantum computers is more akin to a schema, motif, or meme. Finally, if we accept that the human mind is plugged into a fractal matrix that connects to the universe at a grander scale, then we must find some third type of language to describe the functioning of our fractal computing self. Borrowing from Susan Blackmore’s terminology, we use the word “teme” to describe a type of pure meaning that does not require interpretation but goes beyond any individual human. With these descriptions, we find ourselves with two types of information that appear to be polar opposites: (1) digital information that is arbitrary, and (2) universal meaning which is anything but arbitrary. The field of linguistics has grappled with these types of information when trying to describe the origin of language. Is language built from arbitrary associations and thus determined primarily by culture and history, or is there some universal grammar that enables all humans to process language which transcends culture and history? How will these competing origins of language be resolved? Watch this episode to find out!

~~~ Timestamps ~~~

0:00 Introduction

2:08 Language did not evolve for communication

5:51 Syntax and semantics as physical and Platonic

13:37 Language as programming: genes, memes, and temes

20:14 Linguistic relativity in the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

25:50 Universal grammar cuts across culture

30:32 A paradox at the core of reality

#quantum #consciousness #language

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Music licensed from and created by Baylor Odabashian. BandCamp: @UnscrewablePooch