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MinervaNow t1_iqs3kie wrote

Reply to comment by Sphaerocypraea in Utopia”: meaning ‘no place’; from Greek: οὐ (not’) and τόπος (‘place’) by Sphaerocypraea

Counterfactuals like this are immaterial. Humans are by nature social. The hypothetical is in fundamental conflict with reality, so any takeaway from it is meaningless.

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CoderDispose t1_iqs98ja wrote

We have discovered humans who never saw another human until they'd completely finished development, and they literally cannot learn to communicate with other humans. I don't know that I'd say it's necessarily meaningless, just very unlikely to apply to any of us.

Edit: I stand corrected - see below. Apparently some have learned communication to varying degrees

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One_Hand_Smith t1_iqti5yt wrote

Contrary to popular belief theirs quite a few cases just like this, not all of them end up being unable to learn language, some can, others only partially, and some can't.

Almost always though they are stunted, but one girl managed to normalize enough to get married so it's not an absolute.

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redditexcel t1_iqtf651 wrote

>literally cannot learn to communicate with other humans

"literally cannot learn to communicate with other humans"
Examples?

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iiioiia t1_ir1r3q4 wrote

> The hypothetical is in fundamental conflict with reality, so any takeaway from it is meaningless.

Can you explain what you mean here? Just because a hypothesis doesn't perfectly align with "reality" (whatever that is, opinions vary widely), how would this make it impossible for meaning to co-exist?

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