Questions, Intuitions, Revisions: Telling and Re-Telling Stories About Ourselves in the World A College Seminar Course at Bryn Mawr College

The rich conversation the McBrides and I had yesterday about the fund of "tacit knowledge" each of us carries (and we DID have some stories!!) led (among other things) to our exploring the possibility that, as we age, as we become senile, as we lose our conscious faculties, what we know unconsciously becomes more available to us. I was telling a few stories about visits I used to make with an elderly friend, for whom this certainly seemed to be the case. See, for instance, Language Play: Two More Test Cases and On Losing Categories (the World?).

Somehow...my request, posted Tuesday morning, got lost in the ether of the internet/serendip...

what I had asked, and ask again now: would you tell us, please, what aspect of the unconscious you are exploring? What realm of tacit knowledge you are attempting to make conscious in your current writing project?

\nI am doing an unscientific evaluation on how tacit learning or tacit understanding comes into play when one is taking a "timed typing test."

\nSome of you may remember the days when there were no computer keyboards at the tips of everyone's fingers, so we learned to type on an old-fashioned typewriter. I think it is interesting that the image of how the keyboard is set up is always there in my unconcious mind and that when I type on the keyboard my fingers "automatically" know where they are supposed to go. I even know, immediately, when I strike the incorrect key. My unconcious knows what to do and where to reach for the keys on the keyboard, but most times I let my "conscious mind" get in the way and I "think" about the strokes and undoubtedly, I then make mistakes while typing.

\nIn order to write the paper and present some data I'll be performing a series of timed typing tests (and I will not look at the keyboard while typing) over this week to see if I can improve my speed and accuracy by just typing and not thinking about where the keys are and what I'm typing. I have no idea what it will prove in the end, but it seems like a fun and unique way to test my tacit understanding. And, hey, maybe I'll even be a faster typist in the end.

\nGood night all!

\nAlicia

\nBut the idea of animals' being able to talk to each other or express their own consciousness is really appealing. There's a great children's book more or less on the subject called "Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type." The cows find an old typewriter and start sending messages to the farmer: "Dear Farmer Brown, The barn is very cold at night. We'd like some electric blankets. Sincerely, The Cows."

\nAnd as for humans... I like the idea that knowledge of consciousness developed through social interactions (ourselves in contrast to and in correspondance with others like ourselves), but I wonder if other people are necessary for our continued awareness of our own consciousness? It seems like the state of senility is a "devolution" back into a lack of awareness of differentiation from the world around you. But that's something that results in, not comes from lack of human contact. Would a hermit living alone at the top of a mountain eventually lose the sense of his own individual consciousness? Is that what they call enlightenment?

\nCarl Yung if my memory is correct beleived all thoughts in the universe are collected a great "pool". The pool is the source of the unconscious as well as dreams. Perhaps man's common ideas of morality and injustice stems from this pool.

...but it's what i'm thinking about right now, so t/here!

\nsee \nfree exploration

PS- I got this idea from writing in the forum, because sometimes I would begin writing without even knowing what I was going to write about, and I would come up with some cool idea that I didn't know was in me. :)

Just an observation I thought I'd share.

Alicia