Published in the Sept. 18 issue of Morgan Hill Life:
By Marty Cheek
Marty Cheek
Let me tell you about a sophisticated technology that’s now being studied by researchers at Stanford University and many other centers of higher learning throughout the world. It’s an astonishing system that, in many ways, is far more sophisticated than the digital devices dreamed up by the wizards of Silicon Valley. Few people realize the power this technology holds to shape their lives and change the world.
One way to describe this super advanced nonproprietary technology is by calling it a mind-to-mind encoding-decoding information storage and distribution system.
For example, say you have an idea or fact of some sort floating as a thought in your mind. You can use this system to encode that thought and then transmit it into my mind, where I decode it and discover the information you might want to share.
This mind-to-mind technology is so powerful and so simple to use, anyone can exploit it to transmit thoughts and ideas to friends and families … and even people they don’t know and have never met. It has the capability to let you implant your thoughts and ideas into the brains of people anywhere in the world — and potentially billions of people on our planet.
But wait, there’s more. The technology I’m talking about can enable you to “eavesdrop” on the thoughts of the people of the past — even folks who lived thousands of years ago like Julius Caesar.
Even more amazing, this technology gives you the power to transmit your thoughts to people who are not even born. The technology is so powerful, it can allow you to influence the emotions of other people, making them feel happy or sad or angry or peaceful.
This amazing technology has the power to let you open up your imagination and create new ideas. Many people have used this technology to make millions and even billions of dollars.
This technology has the power to let you build virtual worlds that you can invite other people to step into and explore through the avatar eyes of a virtual “person,” someone who never existed. It sounds almost god-like, but with this technology you can literally create new worlds and new people.
Used in the wrong hands, this technology can start wars and global conflicts that kill millions of people. Used by wise leaders, it can prevent wars and end disputes.
I can go on and on about this technology, but one important thing I need to emphasize is that it is not something new. Amazingly, this sophisticated information storage and distribution technology was developed many thousands of years ago by ancient people. The technology has evolved over thousands of years to shape human civilization and impact the lives of everyone who has ever lived. This amazing technology is called…. language.
Some people might say language is not a true technology. As a professional writer for more than two decades, I beg to differ. I imagine the linguist researchers at Stanford and other universities might understand my point that language is actually a technology, a tool, to convey information from one brain to another. Like a computer or smartphone, language requires basic components to operate. Like those digital devices, language is an encoding-decoding system where the sender and the recipient must both use the same code of words (derived from a database of vocabulary) that are placed in the correct order (using a kind of software system called syntax) and incorporating grammar and punctuation rules to clarify meaning.
Language technology first evolved as an oral system. Users made noises with their mouths, and the various sound patterns entered the recipient’s ears and were transformed into a thought. Say the sender made the sound “mam-moth” with his mouth. Almost instantly an image would form in the recipient’s mind of a large, woolly mammal that might make an excellent barbecue dinner for the tribe.
A visual system of encoding the sounds using specific markings later evolved.
Written language enabled senders to use the information storage systems of rock, papyrus, paper, and, in our modern age, digital screens. Using this visual form of language technology, we can eavesdrop on the thoughts of people of the past, such as Julius Caesar. We transmit our own thoughts to people around the world — and people in the future who might read what we write.
The technology of language even lets us create worlds and people formed in our imagination through fictional literature. Authors such as Charles Dickens and Stephen King have grown wealthy creating new worlds for people to enjoy.
Language is a mind-blowing technology that enables us to send whatever thoughts we might be thinking into the brains of other people. The more effectively we learn to use this technology for the good of all people, the more productive and happier our lives will be.
