This is the first post in an ongoing series that I am calling Dinner Discussion^®. The idea is that you are to bring up the topic over dinner with a friend and discuss. Then come back and post comments the insights you uncovered. I think it will be really interesting and fun to see some different responses.

The first Dinner Discussion^® topic is Thought-Communication Disparity: the incredible difference between the vast complexity of what goes on inside the human brain versus the relatively very simple communication channels we have to express it. Picture a huge, dammed lake where only small amount of water can get through the flood gates at any moment. For every word you utter (or type), millions of pieces of data process through your brain – from emotions to external sensations to associations and memories. What vast breadth of problems (personal, social, political, etc) arise from the extremely limited communication bandwidth between your brain and the other party? what can we learn from it? What opportunities exist because of it?

Examples: Have you ever overheard a stranger on their cell phone getting into a heated discussion? It’s usually not difficult to infer that the person is so frustrated at their inability to communicate effectively what is going on inside their head that they revert to their emotions to carry the bulk of the ill-fated argument. And what about the natural “filtering” effect of the thought-communication disparity, such that we are forced to filter out irrelevant details in order to communicate efficiently? Is it really efficient or just impaired?

I say, somewhat ironically, discuss.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 26th, 2007 at 5:35 am and is filed under Miscellaneous, Psychology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.