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points by kerblang 4 days ago | 0 comments
For the record, psychology research has demonstrated that humans do not think in language. This was a popular myth started by someone in the 1930's or so, I think, leading to authoritarian ideas about thought control via language control. People still won't give up on it...

I have found that databases are the exception where documentation is critical, in that knowledge of what we do to the data (described in program logic) is completely different from knowledge of what the data means. Reverse-engineering that meaning often takes me longer than anything else.

Beyond that, however, English is a horribly ambiguous, contradictory and complicated programming language. It's a literal anarchy. Had it not been for primitive 1950's hardware, I suspect people would have refused to invent programming languages and insisted on AI-processed English anyhow. For now I guess we'll work as computational attorneys...

[–] Cpoll 3 days ago
> For the record, psychology research has demonstrated that humans do not think in language. This was a popular myth started by someone in the 1930's or so, I think, leading to authoritarian ideas about thought control via language control

Are you describing strong linguistic relativity here? I was under the impression the weak form still held under study (e.g. names of colors being the popular example).

I haven't encountered the notion that "humans do not think in language." Is there a paper or keyword I can look up?

[–] RaftPeople 3 days ago
Here's one example:

https://www.google.com/goto?url=CAESbAHrOzAVyZ7APar4z2OEdFu0...

"Taken together, these two complementary lines of evidence provide a clear answer to the classic question: many aspects of thought engage distinct brain regions from, and do not depend on, language."