Since I was a kid, I was always interested in science, science-fiction, new inventions, technology and languages. Of course I didn't know much about any of those topics, but they always interested me in a very special way.
I kept the thought that each language you speak is a different window to the world, that it's a new and fresh point of view and, as a result, it means the birth of a new You. My first language is Spanish, then I studied English in highschool (you can tell it's not my mother tongue), I started learning Norwegian (bokmål) about which I even wrote a simplified grammar in Spanish on wikibooks (unfinished), then I've learnt Italian and German, although I wouldn't say I speak them really well, and last but not least I've learnt some Polish (naprawdę).
During all these years of learning I discovered linguistics and I realised that it's not about languages, but language itself (we don't have this problem in Spanish, since we have two different words: lengua and lenguaje). So it's language (lenguaje) what can help us find out how human mind works, while different languages (lenguas) are just helpful in a really restricted way. How is that possible? well, imagine language as the genetic code and languages as the phenotype, just a product from which you can only make some assumptions. It's the study of the code, language, what will help you understand the mechanism. The same happens in biology, if we compare languages with animals and the genetic code with the study of linguistics. In this case, the most accurate, in my opinion, would be comparing languages and bacteria, but I will leave this topic for a following entry.
So it's not about languages, but language. It's not about how we express reality, but how we interprete it, which means how our mentalese works, decodes and codes our reality and how it works with the tools it has handy.
And which are those tools?
Our only contact with reality is through our senses. Thanks to them we learn about the reality we live in. Of course many philosophers will say there are many concepts we can't reach with our senses, and that's true, but only in a way, since we need to have those senses first in order to learn how to use the tools to work with those concepts we can't reach.
So how can we augment and expand our reality? through our perception.That's why I wanna become a cyborg. I wanna expand and augment my reality.
I look at myself and at everyone around me and I feel pity. How everyone looks down as they walk and how they never stop and look UP to the night sky. How we keep ourselves caged in this small and primitive world and reality while we're surrounded by a vast and unknown universe. How slow our bodies are and how much I'd love to be as fast as the speed of thoughts. How rudimentary and simple our senses are, how limited, how far they are from letting us experience reality a bit closer to the way it is.
I wanna be able to perceive ultraviolet and infrared light. I wanna perceive ultrasounds and radio waves. I wanna model my brain, to reprogram it, to upgrade it. I wanna develop synesthesia and expand my perception.
I wanna feel magnetic fields with the tip of my fingers. I want to re-structure and to re-classify my mind, to find out how it works, to use it the best I can.
I don't wanna end up constantly located. I don't wanna give up my feelings, emotions and memories. That's not becoming transhuman, that's becoming a robot and a slave.
I never said I wanna become a robot. It's a Cyborg what I wanna be.
A human better than human. Who can learn more, who can perceive more, who has a faster access to more accurate information, who skipped the barrier of his natural limitations and augments himself.
A higher, greater conscience.
You may think this is a competition. It is, against myself. I'm the one I wanna beat and I don't care about anyone else out there. I couldn't care less about how good you are or what you think of this.
I'm tired of being inside the cave looking at the shades. I wanna take the bandage off my eyes and wear some good glasses.
You don't have to come with me. You can stay right where you are.
I kept the thought that each language you speak is a different window to the world, that it's a new and fresh point of view and, as a result, it means the birth of a new You. My first language is Spanish, then I studied English in highschool (you can tell it's not my mother tongue), I started learning Norwegian (bokmål) about which I even wrote a simplified grammar in Spanish on wikibooks (unfinished), then I've learnt Italian and German, although I wouldn't say I speak them really well, and last but not least I've learnt some Polish (naprawdę).
During all these years of learning I discovered linguistics and I realised that it's not about languages, but language itself (we don't have this problem in Spanish, since we have two different words: lengua and lenguaje). So it's language (lenguaje) what can help us find out how human mind works, while different languages (lenguas) are just helpful in a really restricted way. How is that possible? well, imagine language as the genetic code and languages as the phenotype, just a product from which you can only make some assumptions. It's the study of the code, language, what will help you understand the mechanism. The same happens in biology, if we compare languages with animals and the genetic code with the study of linguistics. In this case, the most accurate, in my opinion, would be comparing languages and bacteria, but I will leave this topic for a following entry.
So it's not about languages, but language. It's not about how we express reality, but how we interprete it, which means how our mentalese works, decodes and codes our reality and how it works with the tools it has handy.
And which are those tools?
Our only contact with reality is through our senses. Thanks to them we learn about the reality we live in. Of course many philosophers will say there are many concepts we can't reach with our senses, and that's true, but only in a way, since we need to have those senses first in order to learn how to use the tools to work with those concepts we can't reach.
So how can we augment and expand our reality? through our perception.That's why I wanna become a cyborg. I wanna expand and augment my reality.
I look at myself and at everyone around me and I feel pity. How everyone looks down as they walk and how they never stop and look UP to the night sky. How we keep ourselves caged in this small and primitive world and reality while we're surrounded by a vast and unknown universe. How slow our bodies are and how much I'd love to be as fast as the speed of thoughts. How rudimentary and simple our senses are, how limited, how far they are from letting us experience reality a bit closer to the way it is.
I wanna be able to perceive ultraviolet and infrared light. I wanna perceive ultrasounds and radio waves. I wanna model my brain, to reprogram it, to upgrade it. I wanna develop synesthesia and expand my perception.
I wanna feel magnetic fields with the tip of my fingers. I want to re-structure and to re-classify my mind, to find out how it works, to use it the best I can.
I don't wanna end up constantly located. I don't wanna give up my feelings, emotions and memories. That's not becoming transhuman, that's becoming a robot and a slave.
I never said I wanna become a robot. It's a Cyborg what I wanna be.
A human better than human. Who can learn more, who can perceive more, who has a faster access to more accurate information, who skipped the barrier of his natural limitations and augments himself.
A higher, greater conscience.
You may think this is a competition. It is, against myself. I'm the one I wanna beat and I don't care about anyone else out there. I couldn't care less about how good you are or what you think of this.
I'm tired of being inside the cave looking at the shades. I wanna take the bandage off my eyes and wear some good glasses.
You don't have to come with me. You can stay right where you are.
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