We behave and react according to  what we perceive something to mean to us, and a good portion of that perceived meaning is obtained from simple biological sensation, but an even greater part is obtained socially from communication. We perceive things according to the meaning our social milieu assigns to them, or would you say you invent meanings from scratch?

Could be both. Artists do this. I would still say not from scratch.

I will even ask, why do you need meanings?

Meanings are translations? You think it is all derivative?

For experiences.

But what is the primary purpose of having a meaning for things?

Knowing how to use them for one.

I think there is a root code, but no human being authored it. Do we need meaning much beyond the social?

Choose the reaction to a joke? You choose how to perceive a joke. You can choose to be offended, or choose to laugh. Most of it is how much you like the comic. Comics would disagree with you. They believe there is a definite form and process to their art, a domain of the funny and a range of things that would just be nonsense.

And the first thing they do is establish a rapport with the audience. Yes. If the audience hates you, they won’t laugh.

I’m guessing its all social for meaning.

Well, one of those so called cognitive biases is to see everything as an agent, and supposedly it’s very wrong to think this way. The fact is that we understand everything primarily in the same way that we understand ourselves, our experience of self. Is this fair to say?

I have been a comedian here and totally in local context and people not from here would not get it or even like it. Does this apply? It does, yes.

So change our perception of self and we change our world? Or even change the world? Yes, that is true but we are jumping ahead of ourselves.

Doctors are finding our DNA changes with our experiences.

Each of us is unique and the experiences we perceive are unique to our perceptions. I disagree with the notion that we are each totally unique. We all speak a language. We all perceive and react to a shared reality. Where did that come from?

When travelling you see more similarity in people then differences. We can even communicate without language in common.

But you do not react as I do, similar, but not the same. Actually, I may. I have to have that potential to react like you do. This is why we speak of agreement, otherwise no one could agree on anything, or communicate anything. Where does that potential come from?

You mean what unites us, our humanity?

The most human and humanizing experience is communication. There is a common ground, a bedrock from which all human experience is derived, but social experience, the meaning of our places, our technologies, even our perceptions of the natural world, these do differ.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~