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Nadin, Mihai, 1938-

"The Civilization of Illiteracy"

The entire
realm of instinctive behavior belongs here. This includes
coordination and the very rich forms of relating to space, time,
and other living beings. Advanced biological and cognitive
research (Maturana's work leads in this area) shows that various
organisms survive without the benefits of representation. Very
personal human experiences-among them, pain, love, hate, and
joy-happen without the benefits and constraints of language
representation.
There are skills for which we have no representation in language.
Various tags are used to name them under the heading of
parapsychology, magic, and non-verbal communication. Once these
are described through their results only, they cause reactions
ranging from doubt to ridicule. The unusual and inexplicable
performances of individuals called idiots savants belong to this
category. An idiot savant hears a piano concerto and replays it
masterfully, although he or she cannot add two and two. A
matchbox falls and the idiot savant can state, without looking at
the box, the exact number of matches that fell out. These are
feats that are on record. Some idiots savants are able to go
through long sequences of phone numbers, produce complete
listings of prime numbers, and execute incredible multiplication
and division. Researchers can only observe and record such
accomplishments. For other inexplicable phenomena, we simply
have no concept available: the amazing last moments before
death, the power of illusion, and the visualization aptitudes of
some individuals.


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