Alien Languages May Not Be Entirely Alien to Us

[Irish_Dem]

22. You seem very knowledgeable about linguistics and Chomsky's work.

Yes if you are interested in language acquisition in children, then of course you will know Chomsky's writings.
Chomsky is all over the developmental psych literature. Since you are boots on the ground so to speak in terms of lang acquisition, you would know much better than I about specific ed/psych folks in an applied way.

Well yes I fully admit I simplified my point to a cheesy talking point. Linguistics is not my area of expertise. I am just spit balling here.

There is nothing at all settled when it comes to brain development. And yes we do have areas of the brain which are clearly linked to language. But we always get into trouble trying to link specific brain anatomy and functionality. The way the brain operates is much more complex and we are still in the horse and buggy stage of learning about it. There is thought that the brain is not really a separate organ; higher level brain type cells are scattered throughout the body.

I took three semesters of doctoral level neurobiology some decades ago, and I realized at the end we know jack about the brain. But right now, neuropsychology is very popular with good funding and I hope we can move forward.

And yes I totally agree our downfall is being human-centric when we think about alien species. I have loved science fiction since childhood and I always try to think outside the box. But there is no way around it, I am stuck thinking like a human.

And yes of course, alien communication probably won't be verbal? Most of the species on our planet do not communicate with speech. Though some do vocalizations as a way to communicate. (My little dog talks to me with her barks and behavior. I unfortunately understand what she is telling me most of the time. I say unfortunately because it is often difficult to discern if I am training my little dog or she is training me. I put money on the latter.)

Yes aliens could communicate along the lines you mention and certainly in ways we cannot even imagine.

But my point is that I believe Darwin's theories will cross time and space. Each being must be survival oriented, must be adaptive, or will perish? Whether that being lives on Earth or on Mars.

I know I am being a human here, but I do believe that some Earth principals will be universal across sentient beings in the universe. Dawin's theory of adapt or die. Our spiritual belief in good vs evil.
Some sort of family unit for the development of the young.

Will Einstein's theories about the universe be the same theories developed by other life forms across the universe?

This would be a good topic for an article. Would be fun to see what others thought. But of course when we actually meet other beings from planets far away, our minds could be blown to find that humans know nothing. And our scientific body of literature holds no water except here on Earth.

Oh my gosh, an ESL teacher in Japan for two decades!! I am jealous.
I lived in Japan as a child (career military dad.)

Where were you in Japan? I was near Tokyo and then later in Okinawa.
I know things have changed a great deal since I lived there.
I have Japanese friends who tell me stories about modern day Japan.

Do you like your work? The Japanese culture is different from our own.
But as a child I loved everything about Japan.