November 12, 2003
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The power of words…
Think about the origins of written communication, and for a brief second forget that you have lived a life that was always filled with words. What did people use before the alphabet was created? We know that to be pictures. Pictures later on evolved into symbols, and symbols later on became words. This is obvious when you look at Chinese symbols: the character for “person” started out as being a stick figure, and has evolved into just a pair of legs. The alphabet, essentially, is made up the same way.
It’s not really the letters A,B,C that are important because really, when you think about it, anything could have been drawn and delegated to be the symbol for that particular sound. Instead consider the fact that you are able to read my thoughts simply because a specific way of forming drawings conveys my ideas. What is an “i”? It’s a horizontal line with a dot on top of it. Couldn’t it have been a dot with a line above it? It could have been a picture of a cow for all we know. The alphabet is arbitrary.
What is most amazing is that we are able to gain so much more from words than we realize. The people who found the cure for polio are able to prevent the disease from occuring in future generations by writing down the process and the chemical formulas of the vaccine. We have preserved history for our children by printing the facts on books. We have seen the minds and imaginations of great dreamers such as Rowling, Tolkien, Crichton, and King. And it’s all done through the use of simple drawings.
There is something in the mind that makes it possible for us to take a simple drawing and process it into knowledge. That, in itself, is probably the most amazing thing the human race has ever been able to accomplish.
Comments (3)
“The funniest thing I have ever read?” That’s a damn good way to get me to subscribe.
Oh, yeah, and thank god the symbol for the sounds we know of as “i” isn’t a cow. If it was, every time people used the letter, some girl would accuse them of calling her fat.
second most amazing thing man have ever accomplished … creation of the printing press. What good is writing down the cure for polio if it can’t be passed around fast enough for the knowledge to do any good. What good is knowledge and writing if it can’t be distribute widely and cheaply to read, understand, and inspire.