The Mentalese Hypothesis (The Inner Code)

Your brain has its own super-fast secret code that is way faster than talking. When you want to catch a ball, you do not say move hand left in your head; you just do it! This secret brain-code is what humans used long before we invented English or Spanish. It is like the electricity that runs through a toy before the toy starts moving. You are thinking in brain-ish all the time, even when you are not talking.

You are thinking in brain-ish all the time even when you are not talking. When you catch a ball you do not say calculate trajectory, extend arm, close fingers. You just catch it. The code ran. The body executed. The mouth was not involved. Language is the press conference after the game. But the game was played in a language no microphone can record. You think faster than you speak. You know faster than you explain. You decide faster than you justify. The inner code is the real operating system. Language is the user interface. And the user interface is always a simplified version of what is happening underneath.

Fodor's Language of Thought: a system of representations that is language-like in structure but independent of natural languages. Language is the press conference after the game. The game was played in a language no microphone can record.

SOUND: The click in your head when you solve a puzzle: the code compiling before the mouth reports the result.

SMELL: Reliving a memory just by smelling a crayon: the nose bypassing language and going straight to the file.

TASTE: Knowing what a strawberry tastes like without seeing one: the tongue running a simulation.

TOUCH: Knowing how a hairbrush feels before you pick it up: the hand predicting from code not from words.

SIGHT: Picturing a flying elephant in your mind: the brain rendering an image no camera has ever taken.

BODY: Running up stairs without looking at your feet: the body executing a program the mouth never wrote.

Music: Castle on the Hill by Ed Sheeran

Music: Genesis by Grimes

Part of Language & Thought — CONSCIOUSNESS — Education Revelation