Thanks for writing this post! I agree with much of what you said and want to add a few thoughts.
I think writing is so powerful because of how it functions as a tool and shapes / impacts those who utilize it, plus, the act of writing generates a product, an object in reality that can be interacted with by oneself and/or others: writing is a cognitive prosthetic that serves as the best method for the recursive improvement of human thoughts over time!
From Cary Wolfe’s “What is Posthumanism”:
“In Luhmann as in Derrida, writing takes center stage as the paradigm of communication, but only because it exemplifies a deeper “trace” structure (the grammè of the program, as it were) of meaning— a paradigm whose essential logic is for Luhmann only intensified by the sorts of later technical developments, beginning with printing, in which we have already seen Derrida himself keenly interested in texts like Without Alibi and Archive Fever. In this light, the problem with “oral speech,” as Luhmann describes it, is that it threatens to collapse the difference between information and utterance, performatively subordi- nating information to utterance and presuming their simultaneity— “leaving literally no time for doubt,” as Luhmann puts it40—in precisely the manner analyzed in Derrida’s early critique of the subordination of writing to speaking. But if the value of language is that it is “the medium that increases the understandability of communication be- yond the sphere of perception” (160), then writing is its full realization. “Only writing,” Luhmann observes, “enforces the clear distinction between information and utterance,” and “only writing and printing suggest communicative processes that react, not to the unity of, but to the difference between utterance and information. . . . Writing and printing enforce an experience of the difference that constitutes com- munication: they are, in this precise sense, more communicative forms of communication” (162–63).”
I think the gist of that quote, with a bit more context added and some of those thoughts translated into LW terms, is that:
(1) There are maps and maps are not the territory.
(2) Humans use language to make communicable maps of the territory. The “trace” or grammè are “deeper” non-language maps that can be extracted from language as “felt” or intuited maps of the territory that capture more of it than writing does on its own. You might think of trace and/or grammè as “the underlying meaning” or “analyzed or intuited meaning” that can typically be extracted from written text if one applies a bit of thinking against said text.
(3) Communication involves both information and the transmission, or, utterance, of said information.
(4) Writing and the published word are the most powerful and thus, most communicable forms of communication because other language mediums collapse the difference between information and its utterance or lose too much of the deeper structures (i.e. lost the trace or grammè) whereas writing preserves those structures the most and explicitly preserves the difference between information and its utterance.
(5) To be able to reflect on, apply thought to, etc. communications, one must be able to separate information and utterance, with more deeper thought only possible if there’s a very clear separation between information and utterance in whatever communications one is receiving. As Lumann says in that quote, oral speech doesn’t separate those two things and in fact often totally collapses the difference between them, thus making longer-term access to the information and the deeper structures communicated not possible via oral speech. Writing on the other hand, preserves such things nicely, and allows for unlimited time for reflection and thought to be applied against them, provided the written text survives. Thus, the written and published word is the most communicative form of communication, the only form of communication that explicitly preserves for up to unlimited amounts of time (we have books from 2000 years ago, e.g.) the possibility of thinking about what was communicated.
When you have up to an unlimited amount of time to reflect on, think about, etc. ideas or thoughts, and can channel your thoughts into the written and published word where yourself later on and/or others can apply reflection and thinking on what you had produced, well, now you have a recursive pattern of improvement where each product of thought can generate through human thought applied to it / against it, a new and better product of thought!
Thus, writing is truly humanity’s best tool for improving thinking, because it’s a cognitive prosthetic allowing for unlimited recursive improvement of human thought over time.
I believe that recorded oral speech via music or videos is now allowing other language mediums to have more power and grant access to similar kinds of recursive improvement, but writing still seems to be in a category uniquely its own for how powerful it is. For now, anyways.
I’m very curious to see how improvements in image + video searching, music search, improvements in VR tech, etc. might improve on those mediums ability to share in writing’s power.
Notes: my thoughts on writing are currently very influenced by Cary Wolfe’s “What is Posthumanism”, but I’ve been very influenced by reading many other different products of thought targeted at writing over the years such as Umberto Eco’s “How to Write a Thesis”, hundred of blog posts about writing, A.G. Sertillanges’ “The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods”, casual discussions with friends about writing, Cyril Connolly’s “Enemies of Promise” (this book broke my ability to write for a semester in college, such was its power), and more.
Thanks for writing this post! I agree with much of what you said and want to add a few thoughts.
I think writing is so powerful because of how it functions as a tool and shapes / impacts those who utilize it, plus, the act of writing generates a product, an object in reality that can be interacted with by oneself and/or others: writing is a cognitive prosthetic that serves as the best method for the recursive improvement of human thoughts over time!
From Cary Wolfe’s “What is Posthumanism”: “In Luhmann as in Derrida, writing takes center stage as the paradigm of communication, but only because it exemplifies a deeper “trace” structure (the grammè of the program, as it were) of meaning— a paradigm whose essential logic is for Luhmann only intensified by the sorts of later technical developments, beginning with printing, in which we have already seen Derrida himself keenly interested in texts like Without Alibi and Archive Fever. In this light, the problem with “oral speech,” as Luhmann describes it, is that it threatens to collapse the difference between information and utterance, performatively subordi- nating information to utterance and presuming their simultaneity— “leaving literally no time for doubt,” as Luhmann puts it40—in precisely the manner analyzed in Derrida’s early critique of the subordination of writing to speaking. But if the value of language is that it is “the medium that increases the understandability of communication be- yond the sphere of perception” (160), then writing is its full realization. “Only writing,” Luhmann observes, “enforces the clear distinction between information and utterance,” and “only writing and printing suggest communicative processes that react, not to the unity of, but to the difference between utterance and information. . . . Writing and printing enforce an experience of the difference that constitutes com- munication: they are, in this precise sense, more communicative forms of communication” (162–63).”
I think the gist of that quote, with a bit more context added and some of those thoughts translated into LW terms, is that:
(1) There are maps and maps are not the territory.
(2) Humans use language to make communicable maps of the territory. The “trace” or grammè are “deeper” non-language maps that can be extracted from language as “felt” or intuited maps of the territory that capture more of it than writing does on its own. You might think of trace and/or grammè as “the underlying meaning” or “analyzed or intuited meaning” that can typically be extracted from written text if one applies a bit of thinking against said text.
(3) Communication involves both information and the transmission, or, utterance, of said information.
(4) Writing and the published word are the most powerful and thus, most communicable forms of communication because other language mediums collapse the difference between information and its utterance or lose too much of the deeper structures (i.e. lost the trace or grammè) whereas writing preserves those structures the most and explicitly preserves the difference between information and its utterance.
(5) To be able to reflect on, apply thought to, etc. communications, one must be able to separate information and utterance, with more deeper thought only possible if there’s a very clear separation between information and utterance in whatever communications one is receiving. As Lumann says in that quote, oral speech doesn’t separate those two things and in fact often totally collapses the difference between them, thus making longer-term access to the information and the deeper structures communicated not possible via oral speech. Writing on the other hand, preserves such things nicely, and allows for unlimited time for reflection and thought to be applied against them, provided the written text survives. Thus, the written and published word is the most communicative form of communication, the only form of communication that explicitly preserves for up to unlimited amounts of time (we have books from 2000 years ago, e.g.) the possibility of thinking about what was communicated.
When you have up to an unlimited amount of time to reflect on, think about, etc. ideas or thoughts, and can channel your thoughts into the written and published word where yourself later on and/or others can apply reflection and thinking on what you had produced, well, now you have a recursive pattern of improvement where each product of thought can generate through human thought applied to it / against it, a new and better product of thought!
Thus, writing is truly humanity’s best tool for improving thinking, because it’s a cognitive prosthetic allowing for unlimited recursive improvement of human thought over time.
I believe that recorded oral speech via music or videos is now allowing other language mediums to have more power and grant access to similar kinds of recursive improvement, but writing still seems to be in a category uniquely its own for how powerful it is. For now, anyways.
I’m very curious to see how improvements in image + video searching, music search, improvements in VR tech, etc. might improve on those mediums ability to share in writing’s power.
Notes: my thoughts on writing are currently very influenced by Cary Wolfe’s “What is Posthumanism”, but I’ve been very influenced by reading many other different products of thought targeted at writing over the years such as Umberto Eco’s “How to Write a Thesis”, hundred of blog posts about writing, A.G. Sertillanges’ “The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods”, casual discussions with friends about writing, Cyril Connolly’s “Enemies of Promise” (this book broke my ability to write for a semester in college, such was its power), and more.