Time for Tonight's Rorschach Test

Time for Tonight’s Rorschach Test –

Some people attempt to find the hidden meaning in what someone else sees in an ink blot. They call them Psychologists or Doctors. Some people read the bumps on people’s heads, or the lines on their hands. I’m not sure what they call them. But, I have come to the conclusion that is what I have just encountered. “Liquid Words” is not a reading; it is a psychological test where you just think the spots on the paper are words. It seems the more I read it, the farther away it gets.

If I said that I understood this article I would be kidding you. The article proves it is possible to string together symbols that I recognize, but can’t understand. Would there have been a difference in understanding if the article was in another language? No. But, in a foreign language I would have at least wondered what I was missing. Not so with this. It does let me know that some people’s brains are wired in a way that mine is not. Vive la Difference! It is comforting to know that some people are living in another intellectual Zip Code.

The thought of Liquid Word’s is more interesting without the article. I do think the concepts that we talked about in class today helped more than anything. I found myself wondering what it would have been like when languages were first being developed. The effect it has on our life. What it would be like to be in a situation where it was gone. What if aliens arrived, how would we go about trying to communicate with them? Words are important, because if they were not we would have no need for email, cell phones, Blackberry’s, or any of the other devices that allow for constant communication.

If mankind’s desire to survive was the first stage of development on this earth, is better communication the second? It seems that development of ways to share communication and knowledge more quickly is an insatiable human desire. If it were not, then people would not spend their money on items that are directly related to communication. Is this a euphoric bubble that will one day burst? Will we tire of Google, email, cell phones, 24 x 7 news, and retreat into a shell like those who retreated from the industrial revolution? Will the Amish find themselves on roads one day where there are no cars?

Are Liquid Word’s nothing more than food for the soul of mankind?