Funes the memorious and Godel numbers and the need for an infinite number of words
abstract, for all can be recalled. With technology, we will be like him,
and we will be able to state a time and a GPS value and recall an array of
images - and sounds - from that time, for cameras and computers will be
constantly recording and saving, like the mind of Funes. Indeed, we can
even have further sensors recording our physical and even our mental state,
and we can put that into a formula and out will pop a value, much like a
Godel number. We can say that the first time we saw the Doumo in Florence,
we were jet lagged and hungry and excited, and the number associated with
that is 286FA1....C8. And we could take those numbers and associate them
other numbers of ours that will allow us to come up analysis of ourselves.
Or we could compare them to the numbers of others. And some of us love
numbers, and would love that. The numbers would stream by like The codes in
The Matrix, each one associated with something real and rich.
But for others, a word would be better than a number. However even English,
with it many words, cannot cover that many experiences. We will need new
words. Words not just of alphabets with 26 letters. We will need new
alphabets with thousands of letters with different colours and fonts and
other characterstics, so even a word as simple as "lovely" could have a
myriad of meanings, depending on how you wrote it. Our languages might
evolve back into something more pictorial, which would be manageable with
computers.
It will take many years to learn such a language. That is as it should be.
And so when you saw that I had written "rainfall at midnight", you could
see it, hear it, and feel the rain and the way it made me feel at the time.
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Sent from my BlackBerry Handheld.