FA+
Shop
985 submissions
Category Artwork (Digital) / Comics
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 1498 x 2459px
File Size 3.95 MB
Listed in Folders
One of the plot points and premise of the Neal Stephenson book, Snow Crash, was that language is more than just a form of communication. It's also a form of programming, in that it can change your brain physically, not just mentally. In the book, the Snow Crash Virus was transmitted through visual images. It looked like "snow" on an old analog television that isn't hooked up to an antenna? But in reality, it was all ones and zeros, represented in raw digital format.
Anyone with experience in computer programming language was vulnerable. They didn't consciously acknowledge that it was anything other than visual gibberish, but their brains understood it as computer code and translated it. The translated instructions were, in fact, spoken Sumerian, which turned out to be the base programming language of the human brain. The victims didn't understand what was going on, but their brains did, and accepted the instructions, causing all kinds of fun chaos in the story.
What's interesting, is that this has some basis in fact! Language does indeed, shape your mind and your perceptions. So learning a language means your brain is forever programmed with the neural pathways of that language, and in Hiker's case, she's rediscovering those paths.
Anyone with experience in computer programming language was vulnerable. They didn't consciously acknowledge that it was anything other than visual gibberish, but their brains understood it as computer code and translated it. The translated instructions were, in fact, spoken Sumerian, which turned out to be the base programming language of the human brain. The victims didn't understand what was going on, but their brains did, and accepted the instructions, causing all kinds of fun chaos in the story.
What's interesting, is that this has some basis in fact! Language does indeed, shape your mind and your perceptions. So learning a language means your brain is forever programmed with the neural pathways of that language, and in Hiker's case, she's rediscovering those paths.
I'm a programmer by education. People aren't machines, so they can choose what to accept into their being, especially if they do what Hiker is up to, and practice mindfulness!
It's true, language is core to our brains, and impacts our perceptions. It's sometimes good to think about how you use it, and what it means, what assumptions underlay it. Try to say true things, and all that!
It's true, language is core to our brains, and impacts our perceptions. It's sometimes good to think about how you use it, and what it means, what assumptions underlay it. Try to say true things, and all that!
Heh heh! Yup, that's why the Snow Crash virus was so dangerous. In the book, the Sumerian language hasn't been spoken in thousands of years. Not because there aren't any native speakers, but because anyone who could speak it was hunted down and executed.
In the book, the Tower of Babel wasn't a metaphor, it was a real place, where the Sumerian priests would hold seasonal rituals and speak out the prayers that would program that year's newest generation in how to farm, how to butcher, how to bake, and so on. But people didn't lose that knowledge, and soon came to understand just how much power the priests had, and how dangerous that language could be. So they killed them all and destroyed the Tower of Babel.
Flash forward to 2040, and the "bad guys" managed to figure out how to speak Sumerian Programming Language. They translated it into computer code, and started infecting people with new instructions.
They found a back door into the human brain, removing free will and choice.
In the book, the Tower of Babel wasn't a metaphor, it was a real place, where the Sumerian priests would hold seasonal rituals and speak out the prayers that would program that year's newest generation in how to farm, how to butcher, how to bake, and so on. But people didn't lose that knowledge, and soon came to understand just how much power the priests had, and how dangerous that language could be. So they killed them all and destroyed the Tower of Babel.
Flash forward to 2040, and the "bad guys" managed to figure out how to speak Sumerian Programming Language. They translated it into computer code, and started infecting people with new instructions.
They found a back door into the human brain, removing free will and choice.
Anybody able to translate this? Don’t have this languange available as a keyboard on my phone. So despite having a translated app I can’t type in the specific keys necessary if there are special individual letters to type. Someone else in the comment section said it was Hawaiian. Which would make sense I think oli mentioned it at some point when going through her tablet.
I wonder what the capital Washington DC would look like. Would the Capitol building still stand after a pulse and a century of neglect and nature taking over? How much of the capital city of Washington DC would still remain after all this time? It has me excited thinking and theorising about it!
Comments