The Equality Is Required for Accurate Communication
November 8, 2012 Leave a comment
The language is the basic tool of our thought. Furthermore, it is the base of the cognition. That is , it is important for an individual. However, its main role is the tool of the interpersonal communication. For example, suppose that a primitive man encountered a tiger. Then, he wanted to convey the information to other persons. If there were no language, he would have to simulate the voice of the tiger by his voice and the motion of the tiger by his gesture. That is, he would need great labor to convey information. It would spend longer time than the verbal communication, but it might be incorrect. Hence, the nonverbal communication is inefficient. By contrast, if language is used, he could easily transmit information accurately. Why the language is so efficient? Let us consider the feature of the language.
The language is composed of basic units. So, any spoken language can be divided into phonemes. The phoneme is the basic unit of the speech. Furthermore, any written language consists of finite characters. For example, the number of Chinese characters is very large, but it is finite. The character is the basic unit of the written language.
Surprisingly, the basic unit of the language is equal to each other. However, an object isn’t the same as another object. Socrates said in Phaedo “Then we must have known absolute equality previously to the time when we first saw the material equals, and reflected that all these apparent equals aim at this absolute equality, but fall short of it?” That is, the complete equality cannot achieve in the reality. Notwithstanding, we regard the basic unit of the language being equal. For example, we consider that a letter “A” completely equals another letter “A.”
Why is the basic unit of the language equal to each other? The words of Socrates indicate that the concept of the absolute equality must be inherited from our distant ancestors. Ultimately, our roots may be traced back to the last universal common ancestor (LUCA). LUCA is the most recent common ancestor of all lives on the earth. LUCA must have the elaborate DNA replication system because almost all living organisms can accurately copy DNA. The common features of all living organisms might be that of LUCA. So, LUCA might keep its genetic information stable. Hence, the equality is originated from LUCA.
The materiality of the genetic information is DNA, which consists of four bases: adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G), cytosine (C). DNA extremely resembles the language. Both are the sequence of finite characters. A three base sequence of DNA corresponds to an amino acid. In the similar fashion, the word is a sequence of letters, and it is the smallest unit of the language, which has the meaning. Furthermore, both are read one by one in serial order. Therefore, DNA and the language are isomorphic. It seems that the language was modeled on DNA.
DNA is the original form of digital information. Each base of DNA can be the direct target of natural selection, as I say in “What Is Digital Information?” Thus, the critical base of the important DNA sequence for survival is highly conserved according to the neutral theory of molecular evolution. It is important that the deleterious mutation is eliminated by natural selection. Especially, the individual, which has the fetal mutation, will die soon. In fact, natural selection enhances the equality of the important base of DNA. It is always copied accurately because its miscopy is removed irreversibly by natural selection.
Let us return to the first example. When a primitive man encountered a tiger, it would be important to convey the position of the tiger to other primitive men. That is, the information of the position of the tiger is life-threatening. Suppose that he went to the right and met the tiger, and the left side was bright and the right side was dark. In this case, a man, who mistook right for light, would be exposed to the risk of the death. The misconception of the phoneme can be fatal. Hence, the equality of the phoneme is necessary for accurate verbal communication. Furthermore, the accuracy of the communication influences the survival rate of the individual. That is to say, natural selection enhances the equality of the phoneme. The higher the extent of the equality of the phoneme is in a group, the higher the survival rate of an individual of the group is. Therefore, the spoken language and the writing language and DNA are digital information. They consist of finite elements. Each element is equal to each other. Natural selection has strengthened the equality of the element.