Creative thoughts (?)

[mazz]

The only way I can truly have time to express myself creatively (if I understand this board at all) is to think...on my train ride, car ride, eating lunch, etc. I have 4 kids so once they are in bed by 9, I'm wiped out and can't get physically creative.

So here is a thought I had this week:

If you could really read people's minds/send your thoughts to others, would you/they hear the thought in that person's voice? Would it be like an mp3 that comes with data attached to the file that would carry what tones and accents and such a person has? I know why they do this in movies (ala X-Men) because viewers would get confused if you didn't hear Patrick Stewart's voice inside someone else's head. But would it really work that way?

One of my favorite things to do is to debate things like this because no one can win. But you can make yourself feel like you won the debate and really that's what's important, isn't it?

I've got more but have to pace myself here...anyway, thanks for letting me share!

[Luke]

Now you have me thinking about whether or not I hear my own voice in my own voice. I guess I do, but only to an extent. Like try saying something in your head, then saying it out loud. How closely do they match?

Plus, why do we have to imagine our thoughts in our own voice? Inside our head couldn't we all sound like Patrick Warburton if we want to? And yet that seems impossible to do for me... it's like I have a default thinking voice and it's very hard to break from it for more than a sentence or two.

That is so weird, Mazz. I have never considered that before.

[mazz]

Here's why I think that no, you would read other people's thoughts in your own voice:

1) Like you said Luke, your brain thinks in your own voice. It's natural
2) You're using your brain to read thoughts, not your ears, duh!
3) When people sing they lose their accent most of the time so why would their brain patterns carry an accent? And if they don't carry the accent, then why would they carry the pitch, inflection, etc?

So I think that movies lie to make it easier for knuckleheads watching science fiction to understand what they are seeing/hearing.

[JTagmire]

I have to think about this... ;D but as I am reading your posts, I'm thinking in my voice.

I have another similar question. If someone speaks two languages, do their thoughts come out in a specific language?

Nice to see you around mazz.

[Colossal Cockhole]

I will have to give this some thought too, but it did make me think of my friend Kendra. She grew up in Manhattan and speaks fairly normal with no real notable accent (almost midwest like myself), but she say that when she stops and listens to herself think, its in Ebonics (I kid you not, this is what she said). She understands everything she thinks but she has never spoken like that. She thinks it is because where she went to school growing up, thats what everyone sounded like, but her parents refused to let her speak that way (both parents very affluent and professors at a university in NYC).

And Mazz, I agree with J, its good to see you

[mazz]

Thanks! good to see all of you as well. Glad to see I can spark some thought in others. The biggest problem is my wife rarely indulges my urge to debate and usually just thinks I'm crazy.

The other thought I had that made her look at me like I was a stranger was when I said that the reason I don't eat the ends of a pickle is that they are by far the oldest parts of the cucumber and they are less fresh than the rest of the pickle. Kind of how I think your bellybutton would be the oldest discernable part of a human.

[stryderwolfe]

for the thinking in your voice and telepathy thing...I'd like to think that other people would hear my voice in their heads, but that's probably an ego thing...honestly I guess it makes more sense that they would hear it in their own "head-voice"

which in my case I think is a somewhat idealized version of my voice. And it's smarter. Like I'll want to do something clumsy or stupid (say, try and grab something off the top shelf without a stool) and my brain speaks up and gives me reasons not too (ie: "I think you might want to get a stool for that...otherwise you'll either break the object or your head when it falls")

Which in itself is sort of odd I guess....the ghost in the machine...orders me around but doesn't have final say....


as for cucumbers and belly buttons...well, that's just leading to too many dirty thoughts for me to thing about right now...

but I know what you mean about coming out with ideas like this and having people think you are weird/crazy....it happens to me all the time...

[Michael]

I have wondered this too??

Nice thoughts on this theory...and nice to see ya here Mazz.

[mazz]

Here's another...this is one that I've heard before but it still boggles my mind...

Why in cartoon worlds are there animals that talk but there are also animals that don't talk? Take Disney for example...the Fab 5 are made up of Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Pluto. 4 of the 5 are speaking creatures and yet the talking mouse has a pet dog that can't talk. Goofy is a freakin' dog too, isn't he?!

And it's not just Disney...Look at Tom & Jerry where it's reversed. You have Tom, Jerry and Spike. The mouse and cat don't talk but Spike (the dog) won't shut up. It makes no sense to me.

At least the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies got it right in the early days...in self contained shorts Wile E. Coyote AND the Road Runner were both silent (except for the thumb in a bottle noise that the RR made with his tongue). The whole thing went to crap when he started talking and Bugs got involved in their skits.

[mazz]

Dec 12, 2008 16:02:41 GMT -5 JTagmire said:

I have another similar question. If someone speaks two languages, do their thoughts come out in a specific language?

Maybe we should go back to CMX and ask Jojo the Monkeyboy if his thoughts are in Portuguese when he reads English threads. Or maybe the Count to see if he actually says hexactly in his head too.

[Luke]

And you've discovered another filter.

[Suzanne]

oh thats awesome.

[stryderwolfe]

oh yeah I forgot when people think it's usually in the first language they learned. There's tons of multi-lingual people in Toronto and that's what they all say...they think in their first language and then translate it when they're speaking language 2....

I also have one friend who says he thinks more in images and whatnot than words, but I don't fully believe him.

As for the cartoon thing...yeah that bugs me too. I always felt bad for pluto, like he was a retard dog or something cause he's the only one that couldn't talk....

Oh and I think the wile e. coyote from road runner and the wile e. coyote from the bugs cartoons that talks are actually 2 different coyotes. I mean, they look a little different and the bugs one has a red nose.

Actually, maybe he's just drunk when he chases bugs....and thus gains the ability to speak.

But no, I think it's 2 different guys and one is an imposter.

[mazz]

no the red nosed coyote is the one that tries to steal the sheep from that dog with no eyes that are actually friends outside of "work".

Wile E. Coyote with Bugs is definitely the same as with the RR. He even has a business card that reads Wile E. Coyote, Super Genius. And he pronounces it Soooopa Geeenyus.

[mazz]

Dec 16, 2008 8:33:10 GMT -5 @Luke said:

And you've discovered another filter.

That is hysterical.