RSA Animate – Language as a Window into Human Nature

In this new RSAnimate Steven Pinker shows us how the mind turns the finite building blocks of language into infinite meanings. Taken from the RSA’s free public events programme www.thersa.org/events
Video Rating: 4 / 5

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24 Responses to RSA Animate – Language as a Window into Human Nature

  1. louisbrassyyy says:

    YOU COULD BE MAKING $2,000 TO $5,000 of EXTRA INCOME EVERY MONTH!*
    Go here: goo.glRXIRC

  2. marcofuego69 says:

    you cant put the toothpaste back in the tube, it’s out there!
    brilliant

  3. keneke45 says:

    Is that Michio Kaku he drew at 2:54? it looks like him, haha

  4. rubix187 says:

    Great informative piece
    -Don Rubix

  5. joshlgrant says:

    wow.. that was pretty awesome actually

  6. professorawesemo says:

    WOW AWESEME LIKE MY VIDEOS!

  7. KuDeGrasBonVoyage says:

    Is there a hyena in the audience ?

  8. KuDeGrasBonVoyage says:

    @greagandev Me3, I have been studying this for years looking for better understanding. Nice way to lay it out, SP RSA! I wish there was a whole series on this area..The applied psychology of innuendo’s.Double entendre’s,Doublespeak,Pun’s,Word play,etc.

  9. soullessblaze says:

    Ha. They cut out his entire cussing rant.

  10. AalsperZ says:

    this is awesome

  11. Manusturbo says:

    @greagandev Why do people with aspergers fail to grasp these? I’ve think read this somewhere before but I don’t recall what it is.

  12. lsbrother says:

    oh!, get rid of that ***!! %% hand!

  13. timtfj says:

    @unofficialdear For the second time:

    1. I don’t find the drawings distracting.
    2. I like the drawings.
    3. I think the visual element is helpful.
    4. However, I do find THE ARM distracting. For me it gets in the way
    OF THE DRAWINGS.

    I find the arm, which I don’t want to look at, a distraction from the drawings, which I do want to look at. There are two competing visual stimuli. The drawings communicate. The arm doesn’t.

  14. unofficialdear says:

    @timtfj I think the point is to attract a wider or more visual audience..and make it kind of fun. If you don’t like it, just listen to it and don’t watch the video. To me the drawings aren’t distracting, they add a visual element that make it more entertaining, while I’m being taught something. I’m sure if classes where taught like this, people would probably pay more attention.

  15. Theophagous says:

    @greagandev I’ve understood much of it by myself through contact with people and experimentation.. many people told me that they saw a radical change in my personality in a matter of two years..

  16. breakdancer100 says:

    shit I think I know why I don’t have a girlfriend

  17. timtfj says:

    @Minajiesu No no. I agree about the drawings: the problem for me is that *the hand* distracts me both from the speech and from the drawings. I want to see the drawings without a great big hand moving around in front of them. The hand is extraneous to the message.

  18. Minajiesu says:

    @timtfj It’s exactly the opposite. As this is a video on language uses, it should be noted that drawing what’s being said is a way of anchoring attention to the matter, as a faceless voice with no drawings would be hard to keep up to some people in some moments. It also structurize thinking in a intuitive way that fills up the speech with more than vocal information.

  19. greygalah says:

    Does everyone know that the word “emperor” was spelt wrong?  Maybe i shouldnt have pointed that out?

  20. timtfj says:

    This is excellent. But I’d find it more excellent without the scribbling hand—it’s quite distracting and is the only element of the video which doesn’t communicate content. (It communicates “Look at me! I’m drawing!”)

  21. Kihany1 says:

    @shammyshity with explicit language, now it’s collective knowledge. lol

  22. ariandynas says:

    THe bit where he is talking about revolutions can also apply to the internet as well. Where a person points out something on say Facebook, he is making it clear how he feels, allowing others to show they feel similarly, making internet forums, effectively an online public square.

  23. arnyone says:

    I feel like Sheldon Cooper chilling with unordinary people when I watch your contents guys.
    It really is a relief.

  24. Badhabitsjay says:

    @lamerizzle If she turned around tomorrow and said she has feelings for you you would not turn her down. You are not in a platonic relationship. Now you are also lying to yourself.

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