Straight through your nose to your neocortex, no waiting!

Flint · 01-04-2007, 01:28 PM

Smells invoke the strongest memory because of their specificity, IE there is no approximation for a smell. Sound (waveforms) can be reduced to digital steps, as can visual data, reduced to pixels, but olfactory data runs on a "dictionary" system: this exact molecule docks in this exact receptor, and it sends a unique signal to your brain, there is no substitue.

Incidentally, it is theorized that the "dictionary" system of smells gave rise to our spoken language, which runs on the same "this means that" platform. Best factoid about that theory: we have a special category of "bad words" which desribe smelly things (sex, fear, fecal matter).

01-04-2007, 01:28 PM	#10
Flint Snowflake Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Dystopia Posts: 13,136	Smells invoke the strongest memory because of their specificity, IE there is no approximation for a smell. Sound (waveforms) can be reduced to digital steps, as can visual data, reduced to pixels, but olfactory data runs on a "dictionary" system: this exact molecule docks in this exact receptor, and it sends a unique signal to your brain, there is no substitue. Incidentally, it is theorized that the "dictionary" system of smells gave rise to our spoken language, which runs on the same "this means that" platform. Best factoid about that theory: we have a special category of "bad words" which desribe smelly things (sex, fear, fecal matter). __________________ **************** There's a level of facility that everyone needs to accomplish, and from there it's a matter of deciding for yourself how important ultra-facility is to your expression. ... I found, like Joseph Campbell said, if you just follow whatever gives you a little joy or excitement or awe, then you're on the right track. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Terry Bozzio**

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