Communication IS Comparisons, KT's voice

[Alex Gibbs <arg@kilimanjaro.opt-sci.arizona.EDU>]

   I think artist comparisons are most often a result of our attempts
to describe an artist to someone who has never heard them before.  How
can you describe a new artist without comparisons of some sort?  More
generally, comparisons are the whole basis for communication.
   Artists are often classified into a "style", which is really just
comparing them to the other artists who have been classified into that
style as well.  They can be described with various other words, but
it's still all comparisons, even if not to specific artists.
   Comparisons are unavoidable if we are to communicate at all.  Our
language is based on comparisons.  We can not really understand
something new unless it is defined in terms of what we already know, a
frame of reference, or unless we experience the new thing for
ourselves (which still involves comparisons... to the environment, to
our past experience, etc.).  Dictionaries are based on comparisons.
Yes, different people interpret things differently, so we can never
ever truely understand exactly what a person is saying without *being*
that person.  But we do the best we can because without comparisons we
could not communicate at all.  Like, know what I mean?  :)

How about this thought experiment (this will end with KT, really):
   Take the color red and the color blue.  When I see blue my brain
responds a certain way.  For all we know, when you see _red_, your
brain may respond in basically the same way, the way I respond to
_blue_.  We still call the same colors the same names, but I may
"feel" blue the way you "feel" red.  If, somehow, I jumped into your
body, I might think all the colors were wrong because the "wiring" is
different.  How can we tell that this is not the case; it's all
internal.  People have different favorite colors.  This is probably
for many reasons, but perhaps most people perceive _their_ favorite
color the same way others perceive their own favorite, even though it's a
completely different color.
   After all, some people really *love* Kate's voice and others really
*hate* it.  They obvisouly "feel" the same thing very differently.
---
Alex R. Gibbs    |\|  |  (~,  ]-[  ~|~  ]-[  /-\  \/\/  ]<
arg@kilimanjaro.opt-sci.arizona.edu