bobothegoat

As part of science class, we had to choose an activity we enjoy and explain what about humans allows us to do it. You can probably see where this is going.

Anyway, there are very numerous behavioural reasons we are able to write (metacoginition, language, etc.), but I can't think of much physical reasons beyond opposable thumbs. So any help would be appreciated ^^.

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Bobo the Goat

Nimbus1944

You raise an interesting point. When you stop to think about it, the whole body gets involved in writing --

Brain - memory and computing.

Neuromuscular system ("output devices") -- hands, speech , or other means of "writing" -- and the ability to reach the information we need. It can be feet to walk there, or hands to click the keyboard, plus the language to convey and interpret information .

Sense organs ("input devices"), since so much of what we write is dependent on description. From that, the mental ability to learn, to compare, to measure, to research, to imagine what does not meet the normal rules, etc.

Digestive system ("power input").

Heart/lung system ("power output").

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NoWorries

Because we eat meat. *Grunts*

What you're looking for is called Lexical or Lexicon Research, I know very little about it, but it's a good jumping off point.

Spudley

[joke]
I seem to have a disagreeable hand. My fingers all toe the line, but my thumb is opposed.
[/joke]

hehe. sorry... off topic. I'll be quiet now.

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Ilan Bouchard

If you mean the historical context, I think it started with the Mesopotamians or something. Priests and artisans who needed to keep record of things, such as sales and receipts and such, started creating symbols and such. There was also a civilization that used knots as a form of counting.

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americanwriter

Opposable thumbs, and because we own all the paper and pencil factories. Life is good.

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Rkay

Why, indeed.

If speech can be recorded or transmitted in other forms or media, of which writing is, then we have more avenues of bridging the communication gap.
Writing down the alphabet and words is a highly complex task and I presume that authoring creative 'writing' both fictive and non-fictive would be even harder to explain. And we haven't even delved into the psychic, telepathic, and paranormal studies.....

Are they all forms and/or levels-degrees of communication.
If I can do something but not explain it, I am sure there is bound to be someone out there who can.....

And I feel that I will lose myself in my thoughts momentarily.
So this is where this reply will end, for the time being....

Happy researching,

Ricky

Jan_Itor

I believe that writing is just sharing information the same way you would vocally. Like sharing a story around a campfire.

So then, why can we do that? Because we can recall information, because we have complex forms of communication, because we have imaginations and because we dream. Eg Personification and (word I can't spell. To stretch the truth. You know the one. What a way to finish my best post like a complete jackass...)

playstation60

Exaggerate, Jan?


Ben

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