Tags for this video have been changed from 'educational, languages, abilities, futured, futureless' to 'educational, languages, abilities, futured, futureless, Chen, Sapir, Whorf' - edited by Trancecoach

He might say Riker. I think Whorf.

I didn't really want to comment on this because people usually would take it the wrong way. I come from a family of doctors and I must say that in reality this is manifestation of a self indulgent way of trying to understand the world due to autism. That doesn't mean it's necessarily bad or good. It's simple a different form of adaptation to the world around us.

Language and communication only derive their power through one ability, that of being transferable and commonly understood by larger group of people. For example if we all could not agree on one definition of the truth we could not readily be able to discuss it. Because language is simply meant for one group of individuals to understand another.

However I will state that languages differ wildly in how they contextualize the world for example Benjamin Lee Whorf, a well-known linguist, used the Hopi language to exemplify his argument that one's world-view is affected by one's language and vice-versa. In an article, "An American Indian Model of the Universe", he writes:

"The metaphysics underlying our own language, thinking and modern culture... imposes upon the universe two grand COSMIC FORMS, space and time; static three-dimensional infinite space, and kinetic one-dimensional uniformly and perpetually flowing time."

Whorf says that the Hopi language expresses a different metaphysic altogether:

"It imposes upon the universe two grand cosmic forms, which... we may call MANIFESTED and MANIFESTING, or, again, OBJECTIVE and SUBJECTIVE"

Other linguists and philosophers are skeptical of Whorf's argument, either in general, or in its particular application to the Hopi language.

And such the movie In the Hopi language, the word Koyaanisqatsi means 'life of moral corruption and turmoil, life out of balance', and the film implies that modern humanity is living in such a way.

Basically in hopi a entire idea or way is captured in one word. The same is for people of the Innuit North who because of their life have over a dozen different ways of reffering to snow. It can be hard-snow, fallen-snow, sliding-snow and so on and so on.

Other languages differ in other ways, some having no concept of time, just seasons. There is no before or after, actions are acted upon. So language is a tool for expressing and contextualizing the world to be shared with others. So in regards to this aren't we simply delving into the mind of someone's unique way of precieving the world?

- durnk