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THE COMPUTER-MEDIATED PROFESSIONAL (CMP) |
| After adaptive changes in the brains and bodies of hominids made it possible for modern humans to construct a symbolic universe using complex language systems, something quite dramatic and wholly unprecedented occurred. We began to perceive the world through the lenses of symbolic categories, to construct similarities and differences in terms of categorical oppositions, and to organize our lives according to themes and narratives. Living in this new symbolic universe, modern humans had a large compulsion to code and recode experiences, to translate everything into representation, and to seek out the deeper hidden logic that eliminates inconsistencies and ambiguities.
The Non-Local Universe |
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Over the past 50 years we have learned a great deal about ourselves. This knowledge continues to expand very quickly. If you are a professional whose work deals with people, it is good to know about these things. |
The essence of "communication" is that it is a process -- an activity that serves to connect senders and receivers of messages through space and time. Although human beings tend to be interested primarily in the study of human communication, the process is present in all living things and, it can be argued, in all things. From this we may conclude that communication is fundamental and universal. |
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The attempt to describe communication scientifically has produced many useful explanations of human behavior and is rapidly becoming an essential pool of academic knowledge. If you only have time to study in one area, the works of and the others who opened our eyes to the complexity and power of human communication would make a good choice.
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This is not about learning a language. This is about learning what language is, exactly, and how it works. Although linguistics may be considered as a subset of communication theory, the subject is strong enough, and sufficiently important, to stand on its own.
All of these are languages -- very specialized languages, to be sure, but knowing how to read and write them confers tremendous benefits. Even a minimal understanding will improve your ability to understand the many technologies that are reshaping our lives. And a working understanding will enable you to talk to the experts who create these technologies.
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