Old mummy… Silent voices…

The sound of a vocal tract from a 3,000-year-old mummy has been recreated using CT scans, a 3D-printer, and a voice synthesizer. Details of this achievement—such as it is—were published in Scientific Reports. (1)

Old voices.

Lost voices.

Meaning nothing now.

Frightening isn’t it?

Why don’t we understand those voices?

Why do we need to?

Lost humans.

Void of anything.

Except of the things they can lose…

The forest is silent now.

Full of skeletons.

And in that deafening silence.

You can hear nothing at all.

Nothing but yourself speaking…

Understanding language. Word by word…

Photo by Spiros Kakos from Pexels

The capacity for language is distinctly human. It allows us to communicate, learn things, create culture, and think better. Because of its complexity, scientists have long struggled to understand the neurobiology of language.

In the classical view, there are two major language areas in the left half of our brain. Broca’s area (in the frontal lobe) is responsible for the production of language (speaking and writing), while Wernicke’s area (in the temporal lobe) supports the comprehension of language (listening and reading). A large fibre tract (the arcuate fasciculus) connects these two ‘perisylvian’ areas (around the Sylvian fissure, the split which divides the two lobes).

“The classical view is largely wrong,” says Hagoort. Language is infinitely more complex than speaking or understanding single words, which is what the classical model was based on. While words are among the elementary ‘building blocks’ of language, we also need ‘operations’ to combine words into structured sentences, such as ‘the editor of the newspaper loved the article’. To understand and interpret such an utterance, knowing the speech sounds (or letters) and meaning of the individual words is not enough. For instance, we also need information about the context (who is the speaker?), the intonation (is the tone cynical?), and knowledge of the world (what does an editor do?). (1)

We believe thinking is complex.

And even when it is not, we make it be so.

The meaning of words depends on their context.

But going backwards, what was the first context of them all?

Go back and see within the darkness.

And you will see one word.

Uttered within perfect silence.

This is the substrate of it all.

(Silence)

Are you brave enough to listen to yourself?

Jupiter’s new moons. Silent foundations…

Photo by Spiros Kakos from Pexels

The public many times is called to name some newly discovered planets, as happened in the case of Jupiter a few years ago. (1)

We believe we can escape the past, but we cannot.

Jupiter’s moons will always have names based on Greek mythology.

Because they used to.

Everything we do, speak and write, are based on things we used to do, speak and write.

Go back in the beginning.

At a time when we couldn’t speak or write.

And you will be astounded to discover that everything you speak about are based on silence…

Speaking AI… Silent logos…

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North Carolina State University researchers have developed a framework for building deep neural networks via grammar-guided network generators. In experimental testing, the new networks (called AOGNets) have outperformed existing state-of-the-art frameworks, including the widely-used ResNet and DenseNet systems, in visual recognition tasks.

“AOGNets have better prediction accuracy than any of the networks we’ve compared it to”, says Tianfu Wu, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State and corresponding author of a paper on the work. “AOGNets are also more interpretable, meaning users can see how the system reaches its conclusions.” (1)

Speak.

And you will think.

Think.

And words will come out of your mind.

We believe in Logos.

And we train our children accordingly.

But there is a secret we fail to grasp.

And in our endless chattering we choose to forget.

In the beginning there was not Logos.

Something gave birth to Logos.

In every phrase uttered, the same secret cries out loudly…

There is nothing you can say that hasn’t been said  before…

For being the veil of endless aeons…

Beyond the stars and the darkness…

In the beginning, there was silence…

Brain. Seeing. Not speaking.

Photo by Cameron Casey from Pexels

Brain region discovered that only processes spoken, not written words. Patients in a new study were able to comprehend words that were written but not said aloud. They could write the names of things they saw but not verbalize them. For instance, if a patient in the study saw the word ‘hippopotamus’ written on a piece of paper, they could identify a hippopotamus in flashcards. But when that patient heard someone say ‘hippopotamus,’ they could not point to the picture of the animal.

“They had trouble naming it aloud but did not have trouble with visual cues,” said senior author Sandra Weintraub, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “We always think of these degenerative diseases as causing widespread impairment, but in early stages, we’re learning that neurodegenerative disease can be selective with which areas of the brain it attacks.” (1)

Spoken words.

Written words.

Mute.

Words expressed can never convey any message.

It is this silence which holds the dearest secrets.

Within its mist you rediscover yourself.

Staying silent.

Holding still.

Outside the realm of words.

Staying speechless.

And yet feeling full.

For this is the only place where things which cannot be expressed…

Can ever be expressed…

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