Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T04:33:21.172Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

33 - The Language of Exobeings

from Part VI - Life and Language, Here and Beyond

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2023

Raymond Hickey
Affiliation:
University of Limerick
Get access

Summary

Would exobeings have language? The answer to this question without a doubt is: ‘Yes’. They would have language in the sense of a powerful and flexible means of communicating thoughts and ideas between individuals. Why? Complex societies arise through continual differentiated interaction among their members. While many non-human animals do live in communities whose members engage in considerable interaction this does not reach anything like the level characteristic of humans. Furthermore, no beings can acquire all the knowledge of a complex society from scratch on their own. Each generation of a society builds on existing knowledge, which is transferred from generation to generation by being documented using language. To build a technologically advanced society, language would need to be documented in some fixed form, which on Earth means using one of the many writing systems, captured physically, usually on paper, or digitally as bits and bytes in computer storage.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • The Language of Exobeings
  • Raymond Hickey, University of Limerick
  • Book: Life and Language Beyond Earth
  • Online publication: 16 September 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009229272.034
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • The Language of Exobeings
  • Raymond Hickey, University of Limerick
  • Book: Life and Language Beyond Earth
  • Online publication: 16 September 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009229272.034
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The Language of Exobeings
  • Raymond Hickey, University of Limerick
  • Book: Life and Language Beyond Earth
  • Online publication: 16 September 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009229272.034
Available formats
×