Language is one of the most primitive technologies, but representational memory probably preceded it. I have spent most of my life studying our relationships with language (and what I refer to as Formal Representational Cognition) as well as engaging in the arts that emerge from these relationships.

In a conversation yesterday, it became clear to me that one of what may be its most important functions is to provide a schema with which experience can be organized and evaluated in memory and consciousness. This seemingly obvious insight had long eluded me…

… but it has vast implications for the possibilities, forms and potential applications of human intelligence.

Because those schemata are both prone to replication (culturally, and over time) and can be radically improved… or made resistant to common habits or errors that produce catastrophic results in human lives, minds… and hearts… not to mention in human activity in and relation with the living environment.

There is clear evidence of malignancy in the schemas that are commonly practiced and enacted… both personally and communally… and there are clear paths toward both recognizing and resolving the foundational problems that, like genetic diseases, we continuously transmit to our children and future generations.